Trivia 10-12-2020 CSA Bandits - Will Allow Extra Time. Had a snafu with posting

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What is the full name and rank of the CSA officer and his accomplice's name, who out in the West basically held up stagecoaches and gave the drivers a receipt for the sum of $________cash, for the purpose of outfitting recruits for the CSA? The two being the only members of the group never having been caught. Funds never recovered and unknown if in fact that were used for intended purpose.

credit: @JOHN42768
 
1) Captain Rufus Ingram
2) George Baker

Regards
David
 
Answer: This would be the Placerville Heist, California, June 30, 1864.

1. What is the full name and rank of the CSA Officer: The receipt was signed by "R. Henry Ingram, Captain Comg Co. CSA June 1864."

2. What was his accomplice's name who was never caught? George Baker. The other members of the gang (Tom Poole, John Bouldware, John Clendenning and Al Glasby) were either captured or killed.

Source: Badge and Buckshot: Lawlessness in Old California, by John Boessenecker https://books.google.com/books?id=s...urpose of outfitting recruits for csa&f=false
 
What is the full name and rank of the CSA officer and his accomplice's name, who out in the West basically held up stagecoaches and gave the drivers a receipt for the sum of $________cash, for the purpose of outfitting recruits for the CSA? The two being the only members of the group never having been caught. Funds never recovered and unknown if in fact that were used for intended purpose.

credit: @JOHN42768
Captain Rufus Henry Ingram, who led the band, and George Baker were never captured.
Source: John Boessenecker, Badge and Buckshot: Lawlessness in Old California. (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988), p. 155.
 
Conflicting sources on this one as outlined below. However, there would appear to be some agreement on the officer being a:

CSA Captain called Ingram (albeit sometimes referred to as Ingrim) but as for his forenames there are variations in the sources, ranging from Rufus to R. Henry and R. Henry (alias Ralph Henry).

His accomplice, and other escapee from justice, seems to have been George Baker.


John Boessenecker in his book Badge and Buckshot: Lawlessness in Old California refers to the CSA Officer as: Captain Rufus Ingram and his accomplice George Baker

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s99i3BauLjoC&pg=PA133&dq=&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Lyn Wilkerson in her American Trails Revisited: Following in the Footsteps of the Western Pioneers refers to the CSA Officer as: Captain R. Henry Ingram but does not specifically name his accomplice.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...se of outfitting recruits for the CSA&f=false

Doug Noble in his piece Criminal Annals, Part 48 – Bullion Bend Robbery, May 5, 2020 found online refers to the CSA officer as Ingrim, R. Henry – (alias Ralph Henry) Confederate Captain.

http://www.dougstepsout.com/2020/05/05/criminal-annals-part-48-bullion-bend-robbery/

As does another source George Malsbary’s Legend of the West the Raiders of Bullion Bend refers to the CSA officer as Ingrim, R. Henry – (alias Ralph Henry) Confederate Captain
 
In 1863, Rufus Henry Ingram, met George Baker from San Jose, California, who had just come east to join the Confederate Army. Baker complained because the secessionists in California had no experienced leaders. Ingram claimed to have been with Quantrill's Raiders during the Lawrence Massacre and became interested in going back with Baker to recruit soldiers for the Southern cause there.

In early 1864, Rufus Henry Ingram arrived in Santa Clara County with a Confederate commission as captain and with a former undersheriff of Monterey County Tom Poole, organized about fifty local Knights of the Golden Circle and commanded them in what became known as Captain Ingram's Partisan Rangers. Finding difficulty in raising funds to purchase supplies for his unit, Ingram first planned a raid on San Jose to rob its banks and stores in the manner of Quantrill's raid on Lawrence. However a quarrel within the band led to the exposure of the plan to the local Sheriff and it was abandoned.

Next Ingram decided to rob shipments of silver from the Comstock Lode to Sacramento. On June 30, Ingram with a small detachment robbed two stagecoaches eleven miles east of Placerville of their gold and silver, leaving a letter explaining they were not bandits but carrying out a military operation to raise funds for the Confederacy. During the pursuit of his fleeing band had a gunbattle with two lawmen at the Somerset House, killing one, while Poole was wounded and left to be captured. After a two day chase the Placerville posse lost their trail and they managed to get to Santa Clara County a week later. Meanwhile Tom Poole gave a complete confession, the bullion was recovered and he exposed his companions identities. However they evaded the search for them in Santa Clara County.

On July 15, an attempt by Ingram to rob the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine payroll failed, ending in a shootout with the posse of Santa Clara County Sheriff John Hicks Adams a mile and a half outside San Jose on the Almaden road. One of Ingrams party was wounded, two killed against the wounding of the Sheriff and a deputy. Ingram fled California for Missouri and was never captured.
It was between 9 and 10 p.m. on the night of June 30, 1864, a few miles east of Placerville near a place called Bullion Bend. Six men leveled guns at the drivers of two Pioneer Stage Line coaches, Ned Blair and Charlie Watson, who were carrying silver bullion from the Virginia City mines.

Blair's coach was halted first. He was told to throw down the Wells Fargo & Company strong box. This wasn't on Blair's stage, the robbers found out, but they did find six bags of silver bullion while searching the stagecoach.

Watson stopped his stage, thinking Blair was having problems with his team, and was confronted by the highwaymen. They gave him the same order; The Wells Fargo & Company strongbox - and two additional bags of silver bullion were on his stage. They helped themselves to the bullion and the strong box - and then presented the drivers with a receipt for everything! It stated that the money was for "out-fitting recruits enlisted in California for the Confederate Army." The receipt was signed "R. Henry Ingrim, Captain, Commanding Company C.S.A."

The robbers (who were believed to be members of Quantrell's Raiders, a much feared band of guerrillas) rode only a short distance before they cached the bullion. Shortly thereafter, all but a few coins and a silver bar were recovered by officers of the law. Nevertheless, for many years people would ignore that fact and search the area, hoping to find the "hidden bullion."

Source

I'm going with Rufus Henry Ingram with a Confederate commission as captain and George Baker (as the accomplice) since Tom Poole was captured.
 
I've found a number of sources referring to the Placerville or Bullion Bend robbery that mention the drivers being given a receipt worded as shown in the question (apparently the CSA officer was willing to let the drivers fill in the amount of cash). All of those sources indicate that all members of the group were eventually caught and most of the funds were recovered. However, I can't find any other sources describing any similar incidents, so I'll go with what I've got.

The ringleaders of the group were Thomas Poole and Capt. R. Henry Ingrim.
 
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