MILITIA GUNS DOWN FORMER REBEL
LEXINGTON – To organize a force of ferocious killers, start with teenagers who can be molded, the outlaw Frank James told a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter.
Archie Clement fit that description. He even became a leader, briefly, after the Civil War, when some rebels vowed to fight on, Friends of the James Farm member Liz Johnson said.
During the war, Clement rode with William Quantrill, who led the revenge raid on Lawrence, Kansas. He rode with Frank and Jesse James. He also rode with William “Bloody Bill” Anderson, who would hang scalps from his saddle, torture and kill enemies, and died in battle on Oct. 27, 1864, near Orrick. Union troops paraded Anderson’s body through the streets of Richmond, where he is buried in Pioneer Cemetery.
Johnson said Clement rose to prominence among the area’s unrepentant rebels after Anderson’s death.
“He became the leader,” she said. “Jesse was riding with Archie just after the war ended, refusing to give up, and Jesse got shot just outside of…