THE GREAT LECOMPTON SHOOTOUT by JD McCALL

When using a historical setting as the backdrop for a novel, a certain amount of accuracy is important to the believability of the story, even if the plot itself is entirely fictional. Unless you're already an expert on the location and time you've chosen, some thorough research can keep you from looking foolish to your readers, some of whom are avid historians and bound to catch your mistakes. One of the rewarding things which can happen when you put in your due diligence is learning an interesting tidbit of information about your setting you were previously unaware of. This has happened to me many times over when researching the location of my latest western novel, South of Rising Sun, set in Kansas. Being a Kansas native for fifty-nine years, one would think I had already learned everything there is to know historically about the state I live in. But once I started researching the setting for my tale, I found out how completely lacking my Kansas history education had been in elementary and secondary school.

Even if they are not into westerns, nearly everyone over the age of forty has heard of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. They might even know of the Hickock-Tutt Gunfight in Springfield, Missouri or the Hyde Park Gunfight in Newton, Kansas (which I intend to write about in the future). But few people have heard of one of the largest gunfights ever to take place in the West, a politically motivated shootout in the now tiny city of Lecompton in Douglas County, Kansas. Lecompton was the first official territorial capital in Kansas’s long and often bloody struggle to determine whether it would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state in the latter half of the 1850s. This thriving city of almost five-thousand was the seat of the pro-slavery (at that time) territorial government and was expected to become the capital once statehood was conferred upon the Kansas territory.


In the fall of 1856, John W. Geary had the dubious honor of being the governor of territorial Kansas, one of six men to hold the title during its seven year history of existence. During Geary’s tenure, the self-appointed sheriff of Douglas County, Samuel J. Jones, resigned his post in December of 1856, the Douglas County board of commissioners promptly appointed one William T. Sherrard as the new sheriff under somewhat questionable legal authority. Governor Geary was to have signed papers granting Sherrard his commission but stalled, apparently feeling Sherrard’s pro-slavery leanings would conflict with his own free-state inclinations, despite Sherrard’s declaration he would “see that the laws were faithfully executed.” Geary continued to stall, then eventually refused outright, claiming several acquaintances had reported Sherrard was of dubious character and had been involved in several drunken altercations.

JOHN W. GEARY
For over a month, Sherrard went to great lengths to secure his commission by legal means, but each avenue led to disappointment. Thwarted in all his efforts, he apparently had enough, and on February 9, 1857, an armed Sherrard confronted Geary in Constitution Hall as he left a legislative meeting. The exact words exchanged are not agreed upon by historians, but the story goes that Sherrard chastised Geary for assailing his character and then spat on him, hoping to provoke the governor into an altercation so he would have reason to shoot Geary. Geary wisely refused to take the bait, but his supporters did not let the matter drop. They introduced resolutions in the house legislature condemning Sherrard's actions and nine days later held a town meeting over the matter on the lawn outside Constitution Hall.

CONSTITUTION HALL
At one point during the meeting, Sherrard was given the floor to rebut the resolutions and declared that "Any man who imputes anything dishonorable to me in that affair, is a liar and a coward, and I stand ready at all times to back up my words." After Sherrard left the podium, he returned to his place among the crowd and was immediately bombarded with hostile questions and comments. One member of the gathering, Joseph Sheppard, may have remarked that the resolutions were just and moved toward Sherrard. Sherrard responded to the alleged statement by yelling, "You are a God--damned liar, a coward and a scoundrel," after which he drew his pistol and began firing. Sheppard pulled his own pistol and fired back, but not before being wounded in the leg. When Sheppard's three rounds missed, he tried to club Sherrard with the butt of his pistol before the mayor and ex-sheriff Jones separated the two. By then, many in the crowd had drawn their own weapons and commenced shooting, with upwards of fifty shots being fired. Casualties from the melee might have been great had not several in the crowd retained the presence of mind to use their canes to whack the gun hands of many of the combatants when they attempted to shoot.

As it was, Sherrard, having exhausted the rounds in one pistol, drew another and moved in the direction of Geary's secretary, John A. W. Jones, who drew his own pistol in true Western fashion and plugged Sherrard squarely between the eyes. He collapsed and died two days later. Remarkably, Sherrard was the single fatality to result from the shootout, with Sheppard and a merchant from Lawrence, Kansas being the only other two known to have sustained wounds, barring the few sore wrists on some unlucky shooters.

It has been suggested that the whole affair was orchestrated so that Geary could prove the existence of a pro-slavery conspiracy to do him violence, and that he purposefully failed to use available military personnel to ensure altercations did not take place during the meeting. Any violence which did erupt was to have been proof of such a conspiracy, proof which the governor intended to use to his advantage against the pro-slavery faction. Unfortunately for Geary, his reputation was irreparably harmed by the circumstances surrounding Sherrard's death, and President Buchanan fired him on March 12th of that year, making him the final casualty of the "Great Shootout at Lecompton."

SOUTH OF RISING SUN AMAZON LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/South-Rising-Sun-J-D-McCall-ebook/dp/B00QD0D332

WEBSITE:
http://www.mccalljd.com/

LECOMPTON KANSAS LINK:
http://www.lecomptonkansas.com/

SOUTH OF RISING SUN by JD MCCALL (AND A GIVEAWAY!)

If all went well, by now I should be the newest member of Western Fictioneers, so I would like to take this opportunity to say hello and introduce myself to the group. I'm John McCall, writing under the not-so-cleverly-disguised pseudonym of JD McCall (sounds a bit more like a western writer, don't you think?). The JD part isn't much of a stretch since that was the nickname some folks used to refer to me by when I was younger, those "folks' being my five older sisters. In November of 2014, Western Trail Blazer released South of Rising Sun, my second foray into the realm of the Old West. Since I have been graciously allotted the space to do so, I'd like to tell you a little bit about it, if I may.

I have to credit the existence of South of Rising Sun to Rebecca J. Vickery, the former owner of Western Trail Blazer. You see, when I wrote my first western, Four Horses/Dead Ringer (now re-released under the new title, Borrowed Guns, as well as with a new cover), I was figuring on being a one-and-done author. Rebecca, bless her heart, just assumed I was like every other aspiring writer and expected I would be cranking out my next effort in short fashion. When I balked at doing a follow up by stating I wasn't any good at coming up with new plot lines (true), she suggested I make a short story out of an incident briefly mentioned in my first book. Once it was pointed out to me, I could see the potential there, but I immediately knew there was no way I could do it justice as a short story; hence, South of Rising Sun became a full-blown novel.

It was my accidental good fortune to have concocted the aforementioned incident as taking place some twenty-some years earlier in the historically important town of Lecompton, Kansas, only a few short months since Kansas had entered the Union as a free state and just weeks after the start of the Civil War. Good fortune indeed, for it lent this new story an interesting backdrop against which it could be told. I would be willing to wager that most of you have never heard of Lecompton, and you could not be faulted for that. Prior to writing SoRS, my only knowledge of the town was that it had been the first official territorial capital of Kansas. Despite living in Kansas for all of my fifty-nine years and having a cousin who grew up in Lecompton, a mere thirty-five miles from me, I, too, knew nothing about this city's major role in precipitating the election of Abraham Lincoln. You could, in fact, make a strong argument that the shenanigans which took place in Lecompton set in motion the chain of events which ultimately led to the Civil War. Lecompton was also the site of one of the biggest gunfights in the West, again something few people have any knowledge of. But back to the story.


Alistair B. Taggart, a former school teacher long ago turned U. S. Marshal, has been assigned to the territory of Bleeding Kansas since its inception in 1854. During one of his regular visits to the fading city of Lecompton, a local rancher asks for help in stopping the rustlers who have plagued his ranch for the last several months. But before Taggart can even get started solving James Harper's problems, he's coerced into helping track down a runaway slave, forcing him to choose between his lawman's oath and his own personal values. Taggart's fight to navigate his way through helping one man gain his freedom and the other violent complications thrown in his path will challenge his skills and the faith he has in his own aging abilities. By the time he unravels the rustler's unusual scheme, Taggart will forge new friendships, renew some old ones and pay a terrible toll to get the job done. Sometimes, justice only comes with a price...

Writing South of Rising Sun was a tremendous amount of fun for me. Along with getting to write rousing action scenes, I couldn't resist the many opportunities to balance the serious with a fair amount of humor where it was appropriate. I also enjoyed the research I was able to do for the book in the way of numerous field trips to Lecompton, learning something new about this now tiny but proud community every time I visited. Located several miles east of the Kansas capital of Topeka, Lecompton has a great little museum with a lot of helpful members of its historical society who aided me in my quest to find the names of former inhabitants and places I could use in my novel. I was also blessed in that Lecompton had two newspapers (both pro-slavery) operating in the years prior to the Civil War, both of which were archived in Topeka at the Kansas Historical Society. Several key bits of information were gleaned from those sources which made it into SoRS.

I think really you'll enjoy spending time between the pages of South of Rising Sun. What meaning lies behind the title? Give it a read and find out. Here's an excerpt:

Holliman wasted only a few moments watching them leave before he turned on Taggart. "That's all you're gonna do to ‘em, dammit? Make ‘em join the army? A few minutes ago those sons of bitches were gonna burn my place down with my wife in it, and all they're gonna get for it is to have to join up with the goddammed army?" He threw the stack of hats to the ground.

Taggart's eyes narrowed and shot their own brand of lead at the farmer. "Mr. Holliman, I stopped your place from being torched and killed a man in the process. What would you have me do, ride out and kill the rest of them?"

"You didn't kill the dirty skunk. He's still alive, ain't he?"

"Not for long," Taggart said, looking cold and angry. "I shot him square in the side, clear through the chest to the other side. He'll be lucky to make it to a doctor before he bleeds to death. If he does make it, there won't be anything a doctor can do for him. He's as good as dead already. Does that make you feel better?"

Holliman withered under Taggart's gaze. "Well . . . maybe . . . some."

Taggart continued to glare at him. "Well, maybe when those men spend day after day listening to the roar of gunfire and cannons assault their ears with no end; or when they've seen countless of their friends die in front of them, seen enough dead with eyes run through by bayonets and pierced through every other body part imaginable, seen men butchered and hacked to pieces with broadswords and bodies torn in half by cannon fire; perhaps when they've buried enough fly-ridden, maggot infested corpses, maybe then when the war is over, and the one or two of them who may make it home alive put up their guns and take up quiet lives raising families, maybe that will be enough for you, Mr. Holliman."

And one more, a scene where Taggart visits with the bartender at a saloon.


"The way you tell it, I've been missing out on all the fun by not stopping in on a regular basis."
"Maybe you should stop in more often. I could do with a little less fun of such kind, and things do seem to settle down some when you're in the place."

"Are you suggesting my presence puts a damper on the festivities in here? I never considered myself as much of a stick in the mud as you make me out to be."

Criqui grinned wide enough you could see his missing tooth. "I ain't sayin' you don't know how to have a good time, but ever since you about shoved your pistol up old Pete Talbot's nose when he started actin' up, there's a lot less fightin' to be had whenever you stop in."

"Served him right. Everybody knows you don't go wasting good whiskey by cracking the bottle over someone's head. I take special offense at the transgression when it happens to be my bottle."

"I think you got your point across to him. I can still see the look on his face when you had your gun to his snout, and he glanced down and saw the badge on your shirt. I ain't never seen him back in here since then whenever you're in town. And when he does come in, he behaves pretty much."

"Good," Taggart said. "I would hate to see him take out his orneriness on another innocent bottle of spirits, which by the way, would make good company while I sit at a table and fill in some papers this afternoon."


I'm giving away an e-copy of SOUTH OF RISING SUN today to one lucky commenter! Just be sure to leave a comment and your e-mail addy so I can contact you if you won. Meanwhile, here are the buy links if you just can't wait to see if you are my winner!

http://www.amazon.com/South-Rising-Sun-J-D-McCall-ebook/dp/B00QD0D332
http://www.amazon.com/South-Rising-Sun-J-McCall/dp/1505286522/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/497440">https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/497440">https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/497440



AUTHOR WEBSITE:
http://www.mccalljd.com/