Desert Rat
Copyright© 2026 by Mark Randall
Chapter 4
It was still early in the day, and Hyrum was still setting up for the noon crowd. He had gotten the idea that a free lunch might bring in some drinking customers. During this time, he doubled the price of beer and raised whiskey prices by half again. He thought this would bring in some income during a time when most folks were taking their siesta and couldn’t be bothered to take the effort to head to the cantina on the outskirts of town. For the small price of a pot of beans, a block of cheese, and a stack of tortillas, it might be worth the effort. So far, he had been disappointed.
He had just finished taking the chairs off the tables when 6 hardcases came into the saloon.
Hyrum recognized the group immediately. This was the Hughes gang. A marauding band that had been raising hell throughout the territory.
Jesse Hughes was the entitled and pampered son of a successful Savannah merchant. His father was an exporter of tobacco and cotton to Europe, specifically Britain.
The Hughes family was tight-knit, and his parents were doting and permissive of all their only son’s whims. Growing up, Jesse’s companions were cousins and various other relatives. Their parents were also well-to-do members of Savannah’s elite.
As Jesse grew older, an aspect of his personality began to emerge. Jesse was a bully, a violent one. It started with the household servants. The Hughes family employed several Irish emigrants: a caretaker, his wife, the cook, and an older girl who cleaned and washed laundry. When Jesse turned 14, they came to Jesse’s father and tendered their resignations. Jesse had been physically violent with the caretaker, verbally abusive to his wife, and had started to pressure the maid inappropriately. Jesse’s father agreed to provide them with severance and good references on the condition that the situation remain quiet and out of the public eye.
As a result, Jesse was sent to a private boys’ school. Which did little to correct the problem. In fact, it gave Jesse a safe environment to continue his bullying. While at school, he was soon joined by several of his cousins. They quickly formed a gang that terrorized the underclassmen. The school administration did little to prevent or correct this. Jesse was smart enough to avoid the children of richer and more influential parents. He was a mediocre student, athletic but lacking the drive and effort needed to succeed academically.
In the late 1850s, anti-slavery sentiment began to gain strength. In 1859, John Brown was executed, and the resentment of Federal authority started reaching a fever pitch in the southern states. This was capitalized on in the various private schools. Young men of military age were encouraged to consider joining the secessionist movement. Jesse was among this group.
As was the custom at the time, Jesse tried to form his own regiment. Men of wealth could purchase rank if they could outfit and field enough troops. While he had access to the necessary funds, he had difficulty recruiting the manpower for a regiment, let alone a company. At best, he could gather 18 others to his banners. These were mostly his cousins and others who had attached themselves to him in school or the taverns he frequented.
When he presented his group to the Confederate military command, they congratulated him on his patriotism and efforts, but they couldn’t commission him as an officer or consider his group as a military formation. The best they could offer was the designation of Partisan Raiders. He would be under minimal regular military supervision, but was encouraged to attack Union military as a guerrilla group, disrupting Union activities as much as possible.
Jesse’s military career was unsuccessful and costly for his followers. His group was too small to attack regular Union army formations, and resupply from the Confederacy was spotty at best. The group eventually took to raiding isolated farms and small villages. These raids had little to do with politics and more with greed.
As the group gained notoriety, they also gained the attention of Union army commanders. Soon, Union troops were actively searching for Jesse’s group. Jesse’s first contacts with these troops were disastrous. Jesse’s casualties mounted quickly, forcing them to move farther and farther from their territory. As they moved, the locals became less admiring and more antagonistic towards them. This added to the group’s westward movement.
By the end of the war, only 4 of the group’s original members remained. Jesse, the leader, Grant Avery, Jesse’s closest cousin, and his second in command. Nick Dunham, another younger cousin, and Dudley Green, an unrelated former classmate whom Jesse used as his enforcer because of his strength, size, and ability to intimidate any opposition.
The group had been joined by Grant’s younger brother, Kurt. He had joined the group after Sherman set fire to Savannah, destroying Jesse’s family home and business. His father had died in the attack, and his mother had disappeared. It was rumored that she had returned to her family in New Orleans.
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