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Re: Edward Thomas Smarr Confed
In Response To: Re: Edward Thomas Smarr Confed ()

Dave,

Yes, there was a skirmish on or about 10 September 1864 near Dover, north-central Lafayette County, documented in my Volume IV, although not at much length. There were two main sources for this, both on the Union side, and they provide some satisfaction for your quest.

Frederick Dyer's "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion," Vol. 2, page 812 says only that a detachment of 4th Cavalry MSM skirmished at or near Dover, but Dyer also wrote "no reports" about this skirmish. Dyer probably obtained his data from the source I cite below.

Another Union source that has a bit more detail is "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion" [we call it "O.R." for short, or "Official Records"], in series 1, vol. 41, part 3, page 144. West-central Missouri area guerrillas (then in two main groups commanded by George Todd and Bill Anderson, respectively) were turning up the heat on the Yanks in that region, perhaps in order to take attention away from Confederate Major General Sterling Price's Great Missouri Raid heading for SE MO about that time (they crossed into SE MO on 19 September). The "O.R." on pages 144-5 contains a Central Missouri District report dated 10 September and written or telegraphed "in the field" by LTC Bazel F. Lazear of the 1st Cavalry MSM which said in part: "Lieutenant [James E.] Teel, Company H, with fifty footmen, has been in the Dover country since the 7th. I have heard nothing of them, only a report that they were fighting southwest of Dover on the morning of the 11th." Of course, the Lieutenant Colonel erred giving the date of 11 September, since he made this report on 10 September. By cavalrymen as "footmen" Lazear is referring to district commander Brigadier General Egbert B. Brown's pet program of catching guerrillas unawares by employing cavalry troopers on foot patrols in areas known to be frequented by bushwhackers. There were problems with this foot patrol practice, as you may imagine, and after Brown was relieved a few days later, using troopers on foot patrols stopped as a regular practice. BG Brown on 13 September finally sent his boss the results of LT Teel's foot patrol and the action on 10 September near Dover, on page 176 in this same volume of "O.R." I imagine BG Brown had to wait until those footsore troopers hiked to some place where they could send a telegram to Brown's Warrensburg HQ.

Brown's September 13 report to his boss said about the Dover incident: "Major Mullins [A. W. Mullins, also of the 4th Cav MSM] had a skirmish near Dover on the 10th instant; captured 2 horses and 3 equipments [tack: saddle, bridle, and etc.]. Do not know that any of the guerrillas were killed." How Major Mullns got in on the 10 September Dover skirmish, I don't know, but perhaps LT Teel's patrol finally walked to someplace where Teel could telegraph in a report, and Major Mullins dutifully sent that on to BG Brown's HQ in Warrensburg, but in some manner that was done.

Normally, each Yankee district headquarters processed their own prisoners, and kept some for a while for questioning and to prepare documentation to eventually send the prisoners, (mostly by railroad) to the St. Louis area military prisons. I looked in vain in Joanne Chiles Eakins' landmark "Missouri POW's" register she made from the POW files of the National Archives and Records Administration, but I didn't see the names Nelson Smarr or Swall nor Edward Thomas, either. Sorry. Those old records consist of prison ledger entries originally kept by Union clerks at the prisons, and there are gaps and lots of errors in them. That you located the National Park Service S&S record that told you that your ancestor they called "Nelson Swall" was identified in POW records as belonging to "Jenkins 3rd Missouri Cavalry" was probably sufficient to save Smarr and his cousin Edward Thomas from the firing squad as bushwhackers, a requirement to all Union commanders in MO specified in written orders since 1862.

By September 1864 Confederate regulars and guerrillas alike learned to carry some kind of Confederate regular unit papers on their person at all times for this very purpose, since their lives depended upon it. Of course, I consulted "Price's Lieutenants" and Jim McGhee's 2008 "Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865" and found no Jenkins commanding the 3rd Missouri Cavalry in either the 1861 Missouri State Guard or in the 1862-1865 Confederate regular units, but the Yanks wouldn't know that, and this way captured recruiters wouldn't be carrying documents that would provide any useful information to the Yankees. I would guess that Smarr and perhaps Edwards, too, carried papers that had just enough officialdom on and in them to convince the Yanks that they were legitimate soldiers and probably recruiters according to the generally accepted rules of war to be treated as prisoners of war and not guerrillas. Perhaps you already knew that captured guerrillas or bushwhackers by established standing orders in MO were subject to military tribunal and perhaps execution. Further, Confederate behind-Union-lines recruiters knew enough by 1864 to at all times carry their bonifides on their person just in case they were captured, and lots of the guerrillas were bushwhackers at times during the war, and were also carried on Confederate regular unit rolls, too. That way, they could pursue their cause as irregulars or regulars whenever it suited them. No kidding. I have seen the rolls containing lots of guys I know were guerrillas, but at some point in the war these same men also conducted war as regular soldiers, too.

You wrote or implied that Smarr and Edwards were sent to St. Joseph, the headquarters at times of the District of North Missouri. As I said, normally, BG Brown's District of Central Missouri headquarters at Warrensburg, Johnson County, would handle such things as a matter or course and established policy. I know the Pacific Railroad by 1864 was under construction in Johnson County. I would guess that by the time the Warrensburg or the smaller Lexington, Lafayette County, Union garrison or wherever finished questioning Smarr and Edwards about why they were hundreds of miles behind Union lines, Major General Price's Confederate army was heading in the general direction of western MO. It just wouldn't be prudent to send POWs along the Pacific Railroad just to have Price's forces liberate them from the train, especially POWs that had current information about what Union troops were located where in the Lafayette County area. That would be why I think Brown's district HQ perhaps sent Smarr and Edwards north of the Missouri River to St. Joseph so guards would escort POWs on the Hannibal to St. Joseph RR all the way to the Department of the Missouri headquarters and their several military prisons in St. Louis. Under normal situations, the District of Central MO would send their prisoners under escort in their own district to wherever the RR terminus happened to be, and the District of North Missouri wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Does that help clear it up?

Bruce

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