Duke,

The two rather long-lasting guerrilla bands in the Vernon County area during the war included former Confederate regular Captain Bill Marchbanks' band in north Vernon County and Bates County and the band of Sheriff William Henry Taylor of Nevada, who operated more in central and south Vernon County. Both bands had strong connections to Vernon County folks and conducted a more humane brand of warfare than other groups a little further away. It seems likely that your ancestor was part of one or both of those bands. Although both engaged in fierce combat with Union forces in their home area in which men on both sides were killed, they were not prone to hang captives, as we were discussing earlier. I don't recall offhand what became of Marchbanks' group, but Taylor's band surrendered at Fort Scott in the late spring of 1865, I believe under the same terms that Grant offered Lee at Appomattox, VA a few weeks before. If this is correct, those terms were surrender weapons and ammo and horse (unless it was their own horse), swear and sign oath not to fight against the US, and they could go home.

I found a John Kelly listed among Vernon County guerrillas composed by Patrick Brophy of the Bushwhacker Museum in Nevada back in the 1990's. Brophy wrote that John Kelly was listed as living in Virgil City and participated in an 1882 reunion at Sedalia, Pettis County. That is all Brophy mentioned, but it may be significant for your search. I do not know location of Virgil City.

Bruce Nichols