[Cap n ball]

I grew up here in Missouri in one of the counties that borders on Kansas (Vernon). Heard all the stories about the War of Northern Aggression and about Jayhawkers, Redleggers and Bushwackers as a kid. It was never considered fit discussion for around the dinner table but it was talked about in the evenings when we would sit out in the cool of the garden and it was just the boys and the old men. My Great-grandfather had four brothers. Two of them and himself joined up with the Union. Of those three only my Great grandfather survived the war. The other two joined up with Dave Poole and became bushwackers. One survived, (my grand uncle, William) he went to Montana and married into an Indian tribe, the other went with Gen. Jo Shelby's men and disappeared somewhere in Mexico.
My grandpa told me he had an old 'six-shooter' that he believed belonged to one of his uncles who rode with Dave Poole. I never saw it and was in the service many years later when he died and never had a chance to ask him about it again. About ten years ago I was down at the old farmstead and was poking around up in the attic where there were some beautiful old walnut planks that had been put up there when the house was built in the 1880s for a walkway. I was going to use a few for some bookshelves I was making. When I pulled three of them out I saw something stuck between the rafters and after I pried it out from the mud dauber nests I saw that it was an old tobacco tin and it was HEAVY! I was thinking about all sorts of treasures but didn't even imagine that when I opened it that inside would be a beautifully preserved 1858 Remington all broken down and carefully wrapped up in cloth that judging from the print and bits of embroidery may have been the remnants of what was called a 'battle shirt'. Carved into one of the grips was the name 'Willy'. Then I remembered my grandpa telling me about his uncle's gun. It's one of my most prized possessions...I have it and the old tin box in my gun vault. I have fired it once.