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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Cullen Montgomery Baker Reconstruction Desperado by Barry A. Crouch Cullen Montgomery Baker, Reconstruction Desperado by Barry A. Crouch, Donaly E. Brice. In this engrossing biography, Barry A. Crouch and Donaly E. Brice sift through local folklore, legend, and fact to provide an accurate account of this southern desperado, whose exploits, if more widely publicized, "would (make) Jesse James and all the gunmen of pioneer days pale into insignificance", according to one promoter of the Baker legend. Nicknamed "Swamp Fox of the Sulphur", Baker has intrigued writers for more than one hundred years and was immortalized in The First Fast Draw, an early Louis L'Amour western. A disillusioned former Confederate soldier, Baker gained fleeting national notoriety promoting a defeated dream in the occupied South. Sharing many white southerners' resentment toward the North, he took to murdering individuals who cooperated with the South's reconstruction. His actions encouraged the rise of outlaw bands and indirectly assisted in the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Encouraged and led by men like Baker, the violent gangs brutalized Union agents and freedmen. Local cooperation in concealing and aiding the outlaws made it difficult for police forces, politicians, and news agencies to gather reliable information on the "New Rebellion", as it was called by the New York Tribune in 1869. Numerous problems, fromthe powerlessness of the civil authorities to the insufficient numbers of the military, continued to weaken the Reconstruction government. Baker and his ilk, in effect, incited a second civil war. Cullen Montgomery Baker, Reconstruction Desperado is essential to understanding how deeply class and race divided the South during the Reconstruction era. Buy Used. Out of stock. About the Book Find at your local library. In this engrossing biography, Barry A. Crouch and Donaly E. Brice sift through local folklore, legend, and fact to provide an accurate account of this southern desperado, whose exploits, if more widely publicized, "would (make) Jesse James and all the gunmen of pioneer days pale into insignificance", according to one promoter of the Baker legend. Nicknamed "Swamp Fox of the Sulphur", Baker has intrigued writers for more than one hundred years and was immortalized in The First Fast Draw, an early Louis L'Amour western. A disillusioned former Confederate soldier, Baker gained fleeting national notoriety promoting a defeated dream in the occupied South. Sharing many white southerners' resentment toward the North, he took to murdering individuals who cooperated with the South's reconstruction. His actions encouraged the rise of outlaw bands and indirectly assisted in the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Encouraged and led by men like Baker, the violent gangs brutalized Union agents and freedmen. Local cooperation in concealing and aiding the outlaws made it difficult for police forces, politicians, and news agencies to gather reliable information on the "New Rebellion", as it was called by the New York Tribune in 1869. Numerous problems, fromthe powerlessness of the civil authorities to the insufficient numbers of the military, continued to weaken the Reconstruction government. Baker and his ilk, in effect, incited a second civil war. Cullen Montgomery Baker Reconstruction Desperado by Barry A. Crouch. In the spring of 1866, almost a century before the black-and-white movie "Psycho" would give theater go'ers chills, Baker was sitting in his East Texas cabin chatting with an effigy of his dead wife.This effigy, as someone who saw it later wrote, was "so natural as to startle the beholder." Baker dressed it in his late wife's clothes, adorned it with some of her jewelry, and spent hours talking to it.Two months later, however, he had sufficiently overcome his grief at the loss (to natural causes) of his wife to propose marriage to his l6-year-old sister-in-law. She said no.Baker clearly was a real-life psychopath - well, at least a sociopath - but no Norman at the Bates Motel. He didn't stab ladies in showers. He killed soldiers, federal Freedmen's Bureau officials and blacks, usually blasting them from ambush with a double-barreled shotgun. Even the most conservative estimate credits him with at least 15 murders, though some authors have put Baker's body count as high as 76.In 1869, shortly after he was finally gunned down in Arkansas, an East Texas newspaper writer opined that the "future novelist, in search of facts as a foundation for a thrilling romance, will find no more fruitful theme than that of the life, exploits, and death of Cullen M. Baker."Indeed, much has been written about Texas' first famous outlaw, including one of the late Louis L'Amour's early Westerns, "The First Fast Draw" (1959). Unfortunately, not much of it has been accurate, including L'Amour's assertion (made earlier by other writers) that Baker invented the fast draw of Western movie fame.Finally, the first scholarly treatment of the Cullen Baker story has been published. The book is "Cullen Montgomery Baker: Reconstruction Desperado." Written by Barry A. Crouch and Donaly E. Brice, an archivist with the State Library, the 190-page book was published by Louisiana State University Press and sells for $34.95.Baker was born in Tennessee, but his family came to Texas during the days of the republic. Not much is known about his early life, but something sure made him mean. Though some of the writers who have helped shape his legend portrayed Baker as an ex-Confederate soldier who kept fighting for the lost cause, in truth he was a mental case - a man with a bad drinking problem who seemed to enjoy killing for the sake of it.We know the general state of disorder that followed the Civil War as Reconstruction. But one New York newspaper called it "The New Rebellion," which seems more accurate considering the things that happened in Baker's territory of northeast Texas, southwest Arkansas and northwestern Louisiana.Baker may have evolved into a folk character, but he is no folk hero, at least not to anyone who is not a racist wtth genocidal notions. The authors have done a fine job in separating truth from myth, considering the scarcity of primary sources.While there are things about Baker and his short but sanguinary life that may never be known, most folks at least agree that he died when his tombstone says he did. That's more than can be said for another famous outlaw, Billy the Kid.Cullen Montgomery Baker. Cullen Baker was a Civil War era outlaw whose terrorizing, murdering, and other escapades were well known in the northeast Texas, southwest Arkansas, and northwest Louisiana area (known as Baker's Country), during the mid to late 1860's. Considered by some to be a Robin Hood of sorts, he managed to evade capture, sometimes retreating into the Sulphur River bottoms, when trouble came his way. His journeys also led him to Perry County, AR, home of his uncle Thomas Young, on several occasions. Cullen had only one child, Louise (Loula) Jane Baker, born May 24, 1857. She was raised by her grandfather, Hubbard Petty, after the death of her mother, Jane, in July 1860. After the end of the Civil War, Cullen became more aggressive in his terroristic activities, losing the tolerance of his former friends and neighbors. The reward offered for Cullen added incentive for them to bring an end to his days as an outlaw. On January 6, 1869, Cullen Baker was killed by a group of men from the community, at the farm of William (Billy) Foster, Cullen's former father- in-law. Cullen's body was taken to Jefferson, Texas, where he was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery. His grave was unmarked for almost a century. In 1966, a tombstone was erected in a ceremony attended by relatives and interested parties. Cullen's stories have been told for generations in the Cass County, Texas area. You might say he has become a local legend. Bloomburg, Texas hosts an annual Cullen Baker Fair, held the first Saturday in November, downtown Bloomburg. Several books have been written telling the stories of Cullen Baker's life. Look for the titles listed below for further reading on Cullen Montgomery Baker. There is also an unpublished manuscript by T.U. Taylor, in the archives of the Texarkana, Texas Public Library. The Borderlands and Cullen Baker, by Yvonne Vestal Cullen Montgomery Baker. Champion of the Lost Cause, by Robert Teel Cullen Montgomery Baker, Reconstruction Desperado Cullen Montgomery Baker. Reconstruction Desperado, by Barry A. Crouch & Donaly E. Brice First Fast Draw The First Fast Draw, by Louis L'Amour (fictionalized) "CULLEN BAKER STORIES. "Cullen Baker was born in 1835 in Tennessee. When he was seven years old his father moved the family to a farm on a tributary of the Sulphur River in north Cass County, Texas, where he was raised. The Baker family was typically pioneer - honest and industrious - but some quirk or peculiarity of character soured Cullen's temper early.His exploits ranged from Robin Hood like altruism one day to senseless violence and psychopathic killing the next. On one occasion he single handedly captured a United States quartermaster wagon hauling supplies to the garrison at Boston. (Bowie Co, TX). Afterwards as his mule pulled the wagon down the road, he handed out the load of bacon, flour, and coffee to people who had been subsisting on beans and cornbread. On the other hand, he would summarily beat, stab, shoot, or hang any man he considered to be an enemy or who happened to be in the vicinity when he lost his temper, a frequent occurrence.Baker had joined the Confederate Brigade raised by Colonel Phillip Crump in Red River County, Texas, in 1862.