Having researchd Duff's life for my book, "Confederate Colonels," I can safely say that Colonel Duff has had a lot of nonsense written about him. I won't go into the so-called "Nueces massacre"--that I'll leave to others. However, the assertion that he fled the US to avoid prosecution and lived in England after that is contradicted by the fact that he returned to the US and lived in Denver, CO for many years (1877-93 or so), as a very prominent merchant there. He was president of the "Colorado Elevator & Warehouse Comapny," a promoter of irrigation canals, etc. His wife was the daughter of Union general Gabriel Paul, of a prominent St. Louis MO family. There was NO hiding out. As to the oft-repeated assertion that he was a deserter from the US army, the army's own register of enlistments shows a James Duff enlisting in the 5th Infantry 1-6-1849, and departing that service 1-6-1854 when his 5 year hitch was up.