He was defeated by Quantrill's Raiders at the Battle of Baxter Springs in Kansas in 1863, but is considered to have served well the next year as a division commander during Price's Raid in Missouri.

He soon became involved in the conflict before the Civil War known as Bleeding Kansas, when abolitionist and slavery forces battled to control the territory.

During a confrontation with the pro-slavery territorial government in 1857, Blunt joined a force including Jim Lane and abolitionist John Brown.

[7][8] He ordered Colonel William Weer to lead the "Indian Expedition" in 1861 which succeeded in occupying Fort Gibson and arming three regiments of Native Americans.

[citation needed] In September 1861, he led a group of troops in killing Captain John Allen Mathews and his men.

He and the cavalry under Alfred Pleasonton fought delaying actions until Samuel R. Curtis brought the full strength of the army together and inflicted a defeat on Price at the Battle of Westport.

[13] In 1873, Blunt was accused by the Department of Justice of conspiracy to defraud the government and a body of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina.

[14][page needed] Earlier he had been cited in the 41st Congress's investigation of the Department of Indian Affairs, for charging Western tribes exorbitant (40% to 50%) lobbying fees for payments due them.

[16] James Blunt features briefly in Rifles for Watie, a novel by Harold Keith about a young Union soldier from Kansas fighting the Civil War in Indian Territory and the surrounding states.