However, by the time he arrived he was ill and went to the house of Captain Burnett and sought admittance. He was taken in and cared for by Mrs. Burnett, Captain Burnett not being at home. Some time afterward, Mr. Burnett, who was out with Clarke on a raid, returned, and found Montgomery, whom he did not know, at his house. Montgomery told him that he was on his way from New York to Kansas, and desirous of finding a school to teach during the winter. Soon, Burnett found him a school, which he taught for about two weeks, during which time he learned all he desired to know as to the identity of Clarke's raiders. He then returned to his Kansas, where he formed a company of seven men to go into Missouri and bring back the property stolen by Clarke's band, or its equivalent. Upon arriving in the neighborhood of the Burnetts, the men hid in the woods. The Miami Indians were then still living on their Kansas reservation, and were in the habit of going into Missouri to stealing horses. The Missourians, also in the neighborhood of Burnetts, upon discovering the presence of Indians in the vicinity, were accustomed to report the fact to Burnett. Montgomery, having his party in the timber, disguised two of themselves as Indians, mounted them on one horse, and sent them around throughout the neighborhood to create the impression that Indians had come, and to cause all who should see them to report to  Burnett. His two "Indians" having returned, Montgomery, with all his men, moved forward and took possession of Burnett's house, when Burnett was away.

Soon, the neighbors began to come in on horseback one at a time. As each approached, one of Montgomery's men would go out to meet him, disarm him, take his horse and lead him into the house as a prisoner. In this way, 21  prisoners were captured. Burnett himself was similarly secured. Montgomery's men then broke the guns of their prisoners, took $250 in money, selected 11 good horses and returned to the Little Sugar Creek In Kansas . Upon arriving at Sugar Mound, Montgomery, leaving his men with the horses in the timber, went to the house of Ebenezer Barnes, to have supper prepared for himself and his men, but Mr. Barnes' family had not returned, and there was nothing to eat in the house. He then went to Judge Cannon's house, but the Judge, although a Free-State man for Kansas Montgomery had done, and did not desire to be identified with him in such operations.   Eventually, most of the settlers returned. Some of their cabins had been burned and a large amount of property had been carried away or destroyed. Judge Cannon found his cabin and its contents as he had left them, while Isaac Dement found his two little cabins burned down, but his household goods had been previously removed, and remained piled up on the ground.

Colonel James Montgomery soon became one of the most powerful friends of the Free-State men, and the most hated and feared by the pro-slavery men. Though his operations were classed as defensive, preventive and retaliatory, it is doubtless true that he did many things which would not stand the test of the moral code. With six men he made an attack on Briscoe Davis, a pro-slavery man and captain of a company of Territorial Militia, with the view of making Davis prisoner, and securing the company's arms.
 

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