You found more than I did. It may help to know that the 1860 census of Richmond Township of south-central Ray County listed the household of Chas. C. Rolland, age 49 and D. Rolland, age 38, had as children David, 16, Alf, 12, Thomas, 11, Mary J, 9, Hannah, 8, Gemima, 4, Nancy (I think it says Nancy is 21), Riley, 9 months, and Martha, 10, and there may be more on the second page. All these were born in Missouri. There were lots of Roland and Rowland households in the Ray County area, a few named Rolland, and maybe a few more. I wonder if political differences went with the different spellings.

As near as I can tell, especially the Rowlands were in every Union unit imaginable in the Ray County area, and some of them were in first one and then another as one unit would phase out and another would take its place. This may be key since Charles was 49 in 1860, that I saw two or three of these guys who disabled out in late 1862 when the 3rd Cavalry MSM (old) was dismantled. They were also in the 51st Enrolled Missouri Militia (EMM), 4th Provisional EMM, 6th Cavalry Missouri State Militia (MSM, and all those citizen guard and General Orders Number 3 and 107 local militias and even the local Missouri Militia outfit in 1865. This family meant business for the Union, no question about it. I wonder if some of the older members of this large, extended family discovered in their 40s and 50s that sleeping on the ground with sometimes no blanket in all types of weather and hanging onto to a fast-moving, big old plug was not all they thought it would be when they signed on. It wasn't much fun that other guys were shooting at you once in a while, either. That may explain a little bit about why a record for Charles is so hard to find at his age, but I'm only guessing.

Oh yeah, some of those Rolands, Rowlands, etc. living in the region served in southern units, too.

Bruce Nichols