By January 30, the chase was on. Union commanders had mobilized all nearby troops to catch or kill the elusive Clarke. Three miles from Chaplintown, Federal soldiers had a running fight with Clarke’s guerrillas and wounded one of them while others with better horses escaped. Two days later, Union Colonel H.M. Buckley, commander of the 54th Kentucky, wrote to his superiors “I chased Quantrill all day yesterday from Spencer through Shelby toward the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad; am still after him; will catch him if I can.” Buckley, who previously had repulsed Sue Mundy’s forces, now hunted both guerrillas. Union forces at last were learning that the mysterious Captain Clarke was the notorious Missouri bushwhacker.

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Entering the town of Midway on the night of February 2, the combined force of Quantrill and Mundy robbed citizens, burned the railroad depot and stole 15 thoroughbreds from a nearby farm. The previous night the guerrillas had put a railroad depot and freight cars to the torch at Lair Station. In a panic-ridden dispatch, Buckley reiterated that the dreaded Missourian was in the commonwealth. He wrote: “We have chased Sue Munday’s [sic] gang into Henry. Our horses are worn out; can’t do anything without fresh horses. Please send some, if only fifty. Quantrill is with the gang.”

Passing by New Market at 11 a.m. on February 8, the band attacked a Federal wagon train. The guerrillas killed three soldiers, captured four others, burned a number of wagons and shot all the mules. Following the raid, Major Thomas Mahoney of the Lebanon-based 30th Kentucky Mounted Infantry feared that the remainder of his wagon train would be reduced to cinders by Quantrill’s men. Organizing all available troops, the Federals pursued the guerrillas, skirmishing with them all the way to Bradfordsville. Most of the Union soldiers facing the bushwhackers were from the invalid corps–Mahoney wrote that many “could not master horses and load their guns.”

Chased to Bradfordsville, the guerrillas wheeled their mounts and prepared to make a stand. The Federals dismounted, and–employing a tactic used numerous times in Missouri–the guerrillas drew their revolvers and charged. According to Mahoney, the guerrillas numbered 45, while 35 ill or disabled men filled the Union ranks. Mahoney remembered that during the excitement of the charge, some of his men “let their horses get away, which ran to the guerrillas.” A portion of Mahoney’s already understrength command then withdrew without orders, causing the frustrated major to halt his pursuit. Following the charge, the guerrillas killed the four Federals they had captured at New Market.

The following day, word spread about the Bradfordsville fight. Union troops stationed at Crab Orchard, Campbellsville, Columbia, Danville, Stanford, Lebanon and Lawrenceburg all moved after the guerrillas. They left the local citizenry to guard each unprotected town. At 2 a.m., the Federal detachment from Stanford, under Captain J.H. Bridgewater (who had attacked the guerrillas at Harrodsburg), again encountered the band on Little South Fork, west of Huston-ville. It is probable the guerrillas were surprised in camp, for Bridgewater’s men “killed 4, captured 35 horses
and equipments; ran 30 or 35 of their men into the woods, most of whom were barefooted; only 7 got away mounted. Captain Clarke escaped barefooted, but our men in three detachments are hunting for them and with good prospect of finding them as the snow is fresh on the ground.”

The prospect of catching the routed guerrillas was indeed good; on February 10, a Union captain in Danville reported that troops “just brought in three of Clarke’s men, captured in the woods after Bridgewater’s fight.” The following day Federal scouts reported that they had “captured another of Clarke’s men but in bringing him in this morning he attempted to escape, and was shot dead on the spot.” This unnamed guerrilla was probably executed by the Federal scouts. Many remembered General Fry’s order to allow no quarter.

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