Indebted to you for these invaluable insights Bruce. You are helping me to come to grips with not knowing the details of what happened to my family in this period. It comes in two parts. The first is my great-grandfather Edward Smarr. The second is the political assassination of Edward's father who, according to a county history book, was called out onto his front porch at night by Union troops & murdered. The county history says "in 1864". While Edward might have been captured at Dover, I can't stop thinking of the possibility that the murder of the father & the capture of the son occurred simultaneously.

Accordingly, does anyone know in the following Union communication, dated September 10, the same day Edward Smarr was captured, who the "commanding general" is, and how might I locate the investigation it alludes to? It is conceivable to me it could contain an account of my great-great grandfather's murder by Union troops in front of his family. It makes reference to "the murder of peaceable citizens,

Sept 10, 1864
HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI, 
Warrensburg, Mo., September 10, 1864.
Lieutenant Colonel B. F. LAZEAR,
Commanding Second Sub-District, Lexington, Mo.:
COLONEL: The commanding general is informed by Major-General Rosecrans that you troops are causing a reign of terror in La Fayette and Saline Counties, and that it should receive your attention. He is also further informed that their officers are permitting them to rob the people of their property for their own benefit, to murder peaceable citizens, and commit other outrages upon the people, while the pursuit of the bushwhackers is abandoned by loading the troops with the plunder from the country. The meager results reported to these headquarters would seem to confirm this statement. The commanding general directs me to say, that should the investigation, now in progress, prove that any of the people have been plundered by the troops under your command, that the pay of the officers, and, if necessary, of the soldiers, will be stopped and appropriated, so far as it will go, to refund the value of property taken from the people. He directs that you will report fully in relation to these complaints.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. H. STEGER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
Official Records, Series 1, Vol 41, Part 3, p.144
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Dave Smarr