Your questions are on point and excellent. Before I answer in part only to your questions I should first mention that I am publishing the enrollment records of Sehelby's brigade. The first regiment is inpublishing as I wrie this message. The 5th Missouri will be complete with as many supporting documents as possible. Each regimental roster, and I am completing the 12th now, is at the company level. At teh end of each company roster is a break down of the company stats and where required references. The last regiment to be done will be the 6th Missouri which has a large number of documents to include the courtmartial records. However, the CSR's are inaccurate, which is to be expected. I have turned to several sources, both published and currently unpublished which adds further names to therosters or additional information of an individual. All of this will appear in those published rosters.
When assembling the rosters of each company I observed, as you noted, that numbers of men had deserted at specific times and places. The statement on my part that a whole company deserting is regrettable on my part, which is not entirely accurate and too broad a statement on my part. Mass desertion of that sort was quite rare. In the case of the companies of the 6th which had mass desertions the rosters show at best 18-20 men leaving at any particular time. In the case of the 6th Missour there were two occasions. However, when you subract the men who were left behind sick and match that number to the actual effective strength present, the number left matches that left the ranks at those times. In a Trans-Miss company of either side, a unit that sustained a high percentage loss (no matter the cause) pretty much knocked it out as a combat effective unit. One point should be made though - Not all these men just deserted. Some simply too leave to go home for a time (some to take sick relatives home to die or nurse them)and turned up back in Arkansas. When examining the raw information various conclusions can be drawn and that is where I want to put the reader. I want the reader to draw their own conclusions as to what happend. Another point, when I say men refusing to engage, that stands. I am sure you have noted that in some cases Colonel Shelby put a man on his list of Cowards. The 6th and 12th Mo., were the only ones who had men on that list. The label Coward in Shelby's brigade can only come from having refused to fight. Here again such labels were few, averaging maybe one or two per company, but clearly an object lesson.
You mentioned the witness statment of Lt. Dickey as seeing a man at Srpingfield from his command being one of the first in the fortifications. That statement on Dickey's part troubles me. Primairly, the regiment was deployed entirely in front of Fort No. 4, on the south facing north. At no time was that fort or its environs penetrated during January 8th, 1863. I wan't there of course so I am not going to put myself out there and say it didn't happen. The men of Shelby's Brigade were a class by themselves when it came to acting individually.
Your point about Berry pleading guilty to "left his command" "Cowardice" at Prairie Grove and Springfield, is a solid piont. The empirical evidence from the rosters plus the returns from the various fights leads me to ask' "Why did those companies not sustain any casualties at Praire Grove, Hartville, or Springfield. That is tretching luck a wee bit in my mind. Still an officer is held responsible for the behavior of his men - a dictum that stands as mcuh today as at any time in history. Again I wasn't there and in Berry's case it may be entirely Berry. I don't think so. He was elected by the men of his company for some reason, to behave cowardly I am sure was not one of them. At Hartville I have an account of a man who was with the 3rd Missouri (U) who was astonished to see some of the men on Shelby's right (6th Mo.) not fighting or milling around. He states that in one sentence only but he goes on to state that had they acted quickly the whole of the union position would have been in serious trouble.
There are other references both direct and indirect which are not included in the CSR's which clarifies or adds to the positions I have taken. It would take more time and effort to state those now. I have put it all in my work "Missouri Raid: Battles of Springfield and Hartville." At present I have the manuscript in the hands of another reseracher and writer to give it a thorough going over. He is examining all the past a recent supporting material to solidfy the work and bring a better understanding of that period of time so confusing to all of us.