Last Raid of the Daltons (ePub)

"Written by a remarkable man, Captain David Elliott...an experience journalist...the most accurate-as well as contemporary-accounts of the raid." - Daltons!: The Raid on Coffeyville, Kansas (1999)

"David Stewart Elliot, editor of the Coffeyville Journal...the only reliable historian of the raid...excellent." - Tough Towns: True Tales from the Gritty Streets of the Old West (2006)

"An account of this battle...can be found in minute historical detail in David Stewart Elliott's Last Raid of the Daltons." - Heck Thomas, Frontier Marshal: The Story of a Real Gunfighter (2018)

"We are indebted to the painstaking and carefully written work published by Colonel D. Stewart Elliot...for the story of the concluding scene of that raid we can do no better." -History of Montgomery County, Kansas (1903)

How did ordinary everyday armed citizens who had had enough finally put an end to a gang of hardened bandits who had been terrorizing them for years?

In 1892, first-hand observer David Stewart Elliott (1843- 1899), an experienced journalist and former Army officer, would publish an account of "Last Raid of the Daltons: A Reliable Recital of the Battle with the Bandits at Coffeyville, Kansas, October 5, 1892."

The Dalton Gang was a group of outlaws in the American Old West during 1890-1892. It was also known as The Dalton Brothers because four of its members were brothers. The gang specialized in bank and train robberies. Due to the sensationalism that surrounded the Dalton Gang's exploits, they were accused of several different robberies all over the country, but operated chiefly in Kansas and Oklahoma Territory. Numerous myths were published about the gang, but Elliott's book is believed to be the most reliable source of the actual last raid made by the Dalton gang.

About the author:

David Stewart Elliott (December 23, 1843-February 28, 1899) became a member of the bar of Montgomery county in 1885 and located in the practice at Coffeyville.

He was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, December 23rd, 1843, and at the age of about fifteen years entered a newspaper office to learn the business. In April, 1861, he enlisted in Co. "G." 13th Penn. Volunteers, and at the end of his three months' term re-enlisted in Co. "E," 76th Penn. Volunteers, and served therein over three years.

In 1868 he assumed the editorship of the Bedford County Press, at Everett, Pennsylvania, which he continued 'till 1873. On February 9th, 1869, he was admitted to the bar of Bedford county, Pa. He was editor of the Everett, Pa., Press from 1881 to 1885, and in May of the last year located at Coffeyville, where from June 5th, 1885, to September 1st, 1897, he edited the Coffeyville Weekly Journal and early in 1892 he established the Daily Journal and edited it 'till 1897.

On April 5th, 1898, Captain Elliott enlisted and was commissioned Captain of Co. G, 20th Kansas regiment and entered the Spanish-American war, and engaged in active warfare with the Filipinos early in 1899. While in line of duty, on February 28th, 1899, he was shot by a Filipino sharpshooter, and died a few hours later. His remains were brought home and buried at Coffeyville on April 14th, 1899, with military honors.

During his residence at Coffeyville Capt. Elliott was its attorney for one or more terms and a member, one term, of the Lower House of the Kansas Legislature, where he was at once a conspicuous member.