Bruce,
Thank you. This helps a lot, about what I was thinking. We previously had a discussion regarding John W Benson and his cousin, this John W Guthrey. I'm still chasing all I can find about JWG. You are correct, this is the same (I'm pretty sure) man from Saline County who was captured 1861 & paroled 1862. He moved his family to LA shortly after 1900 and one of his sons was my grandfather. I had an exchange of letters many, many years ago with an elderly cousin of JWG who knew and remembered him well and she told me he was captured and in prison at Rock Island specifically. Because there is no mention of that or service related to it in the Saline Co histories or reunion, I've always searched and wondered. We know so little about him, he died about 1910. The age of the man in the records is correct for him as well as being from Saline Co and of Confederate sympathies. The physical height description seems a little off based on pictures I have but not drastically so I can live with that as I'm really guessing. And I have found no other Guthrie/Guthrey person who meets this description at this time in MO. But I also have found that there are always risks assuming identities, especially in military records. So I keep lookingl

This Armstrong's Company being a possible fake really puzzles me, seems it would have taken a lot of forethought and planning to have that worked out before so as to tell it when captured. Am I being too doubtful? And then to confuse further, the MO archives also say the man captured in 1861 was "captured in Lebanon TN and held until the end of the war". A Lebanon TN did exist then but I have found nothing that would lead me to think he was in any of the military actions around it. So I thought maybe there was a Lebanon MO but haven't found that either. Would have been awfully nice to find a Lebanon in Lawrence County!

I really appreciate your time and input. I read all the postings, I also have a distant relative and sons who served with General Shelby from Barton County so I keep an eye out for information that may relate to them.

Regards, Brenda McCaig