The Mohave Gambler Story

Chapter 2

The Boarder Wars

Bobby was a young man riding with renegades motivated by their hatred of the Yankees, by their cause, and by the bounty they took.  They rode hard and kept most of what they plundered in their raids.  Robert was not prominent among the members of Quantrill’s robber band, and was often assigned the unglamorous task of scrounging guns from the field of battle and keeping the various guns working.  Like many of Quantrill’s Raiders, he wore his four cap and ball revolvers with pride even though he rarely pulled them from their holsters. 

He practiced regularly with his two Colt's .44 Walker Dragoon and his two .36 caliber 1851 Colt's Navy revolvers.  Four guns gave him twenty-four shots without reloading.  He often practiced for the day when he might have to shoot his way out of a difficult situation.

Quantrill, a former schoolteacher and gambler, adopted Robert as the innocent youth caught up in a war and forced him to continue his studies when the raiders were not fighting.  He became more involved in the fighting as he became more experience and eventually became known as one of the most lethal of the raiders when outnumbered by his enemy.    

It was on August 21, 1863, that Robert was forced to shoot his way out of trouble.  He had been on the raid into Lawrence, Kansas and was separated from the rest of the raiders and was trapped by angry townspeople.   He was forced again to go against the odds to draw and fire his guns to escape a murderous crowd bent on revenge.  His 51 Navy revolvers, which he wore in shoulder holsters, had been emptied and he was forced to shoot the big Dragoons.  He always loaded those powerful Walkers with maximum loads of gunpowder, because the cannon-like boom would make many seasoned veterans run in fear.

It was the raid on Lawrence and the Barter Springs Massacre that caused the Gambler to become disillusioned with his leader and with his participation in the war.  He continued to serve by fighting viciously in battles, by picking up guns left on the ground by the enemies, and by keeping the various guns operating smoothly.  He was beginning to see a new kind of revolver showing up after battles.  This new Remington New Army revolvers were similar to the Remington-Beals revolvers, but these .44 caliber revolvers had better front sights, a cylinder pin locking system, safety notches between the nipples, and larger and more comfortable grips.  These new Remington revolvers were better and safer than the older ones, but the few he was seeing were showing signs of severe jamming because of powder fouling at the front of the cylinders.

Bobby found a couple jammed Remington New Army Revolvers in good condition and set them aside for himself.  He test fired them and found they would jam before getting to the sixth shot in the cylinder.  He liked the power of this strong new gun and wanted to find a way to make them work correctly.