There seems to be merit in both your conclusions, namely, that Captain Box erred in some of those names. I really wanted to nail down that LTC Wilhite, but, thanks to you guys, we can eliminate both of the Cooper County Wilhites (James F. and Dr. William D. Wilhite) as candidates. Wilhites who were with guerrillas or were Confederate recruiters were from west-central Missouri, Saline County, or from the Boone County area throughout the war, except for those two Cooper County ones. I was thinking the dead LTC Wilhite was one of the Boone or Howard County ones or maybe the Saline County bunch, but, as John so aptly wrote "the trail is going cold." I always had trouble nailing down which Wilhite is which. Several are mentioned in Eakin's "Missouri POWs," Eakin and Hale's and Hale's "Branded As Rebels,", and Lankford's "The Encyclopedia of Quantrill's Guerrillas," and a few other places. I was hoping diving deep into this episode would help me sort out these guys, and it did help a bit. I still maintain this group was a bunch of Colonel Jackman's recruits led by some of his cadre, though, as several surrounding events point to that.
One possible source for helping cause Captain Box's confusion with the names of the leaders may have been the "black boy formerly belonging to Lieutenant Colonel Wilhite." Box wrote that "he appears to be a smart lad." I wonder if that lad was smarter than the captain estimated. Is it possible that this youth put out a good bit of disinformation for some reason best known to himself? Well, the trail is certainly cold for that, too. I really enjoyed diving into this as a chance to see where it would lead. You just never know. Thanks for all your help in permitting me to run with this one for a while.
Bruce Nichols