In my great interest of behind-Union-lines Confederate recruiting in Missouri I have not encountered documentation about active southern recruiting actually in the State of Iowa. This is not to deny that it was done, just to say I have not found it. There was strong southern sympathy in several northeast Missouri counties that abut the Iowa border, particularly Schuyler, Scotland, and Clark Counties. There was also strong southern sympathy in some northwest Missouri counties against the Iowa border, too--more Atchison and Nodaway Counties that others.

What I have seen in reading is that some Missouri guerrillas sought refuge in Iowa from arrest in Missouri, because I have seen record of either local Iowa officials or Federal authorities in Iowa arresting some individuals. I recall that some of these were military prison escapees from Missouri and that sort of thing. Perhaps some were also attempting to purchase percussion caps, ammunition, or firearms in Iowa that were restricted in Missouri. That was more common in south Illinois than Iowa. Basically, the common community in Iowa worked against that sort of thing except in individual cases.

Bruce Nichols