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Submitted: 1/10/14 • Approved: 7/11/16 • Last Updated: 3/11/18 • R23893-G0-S3
US Army
Company I 6 Kansas Cavalry
Civil War Union
December 21, 1801 - December 7, 1886
Jacob Bayless arrived in the United States with his family from France in New York City. From there they moved to Xenia, Ohio. Jacob married, had three children and his wife died leaving him with the children to raise alone. Jacob was influenced by abolitionist politics and moved to Kansas around 1855 settling in Marion Township of Bourbon County after having been burned out of Lawrence, Kansas on the event of its first sacking. Jacob Bayless was in the Civil War enlisted to Co I, 6th Regt. Kansas Cavalry. This regiment was originally formed from three companies from the Fort Scott area and later reorganized into a cavalry regiment again largely recruited from Bourbon County. My maternal grandfather Daniel Bayless, was Jacob's great-grandson. Daniel Bayless wrote about the stories Jacob told about his experiences in the Civil War. Jacob enlisted in the 6th Kansas Cavalry in late 1861 with his eldest son. He was enrolled in Company I ( EYE )and served until mid-1863. Jacob's headstone is somewhat eroded and his service in the Civil War is often listed as his having been a member of the 16th Kansas Cavalry, the I being seen as a numeral rather than a letter. Company I was formed as an irregular scouting unit for the 6th Kansas Cavalry and is mentioned as having been disbanded some months later. His muster roll lists him as Jacob Bailus which was the original spelling in French. Family lore says he was furloughed from Federal service by General James Blunt, a somewhat well- known officer from Kansas, after the death of his son, which is variously told as having occurred at the battle of Prairie Grove or before the Federal occupation of Fort Smith Arkansas. The discrepancy is unclear and there is no Federal record of Jake's son's enlistment. After the war family legend says he hunted buffalo from Fort Hays to feed the 7th US Cavalry Regiment. At any rate he returned to farming in Marion Township with his surviving son, F.C. Bayless, also buried in Bronson Cemetery, where he lived out the remainder of his life.
This headstone is slated to be replaced by his great-great granddaughter Peggy Thompson nee Bayless and her husband Ted J Thompson, my parents. When the replacement is made the original will be taken to their residence in Arkansas....Summer 2013.
--Robert Thompson
Contributed on 1/10/14
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Record #: 23893