Ron,

I found him in the MO Sec'y of State's website of military records for the Civil War under the name Henderson DOUGLASS! The military mangled lots of surnames in the 1800s, but you have to remember that lots of families during the 1800s still hadn't settled on only one spelling of their last name.

Here's what his card says to me. Henderson was in Captain P. L. Powers' Company K, and that company kept the same three officers all through the war until final muster out of the entire EMM in March 1865. Henderson at age 31 enrolled 26 July 1862 when the EMM mandatory program began under General Order Number 19. Henderson was ordered into active duty at Ironton, Iron County, 1 December 1862, and was relieved from active duty 26 March 1863, completing 116 days active duty. One remark at the bottom of the card seems to say: "M. F." or "M. P" or something "Enrolled Apr. 30, 1864", Then below that written some time later: "Only the enrollment rolls above company for 1862 and 1864."

Just what I can understand of this tells me that Private Douglass was enrolled again on 30 April 1864, perhaps to counter guerrillas who were active in several areas of SE MO. I wonder if this remark means that Private Douglass showed up at a mandatory company formation, or that he went on active duty again in April 1864. I am not sure.

There were some things about the 68th EMM that bear a few words. In one of my books I wrote about the Colonel James Lindsay's 68th EMM being activated in winter 1863 to repair local roads and bridges for Union General John Wynn Davidson's little army to operate in the northern Ozarks against Confederate recruiting commands and guerrilla bands. The EMM were conceived and usually acted purely in a defensive mode to protect their home areas against those same recruiters and guerrillas. Since the EMM were not well armed, nor well trained, nor well equipped, little was expected of them. Colonel Lindsay had other ideas and he had two small cannon made in an iron forge somewhere in the region. On 27 January 1863 he led his EMM regiment with the two cannon raiding the town of Bloomfield, Stoddard County, and captured lots of Rebel recruiting cadre and recruits. They didn't clear this with the district Union command, who were flabbergasted that an EMM regiment would even dare to raid a town against a full Confederate regiment being organized. Lindsay's regiment stampeded about six companies of Confederate Colonel William L. Jeffers' regiment and men led by Captains James A. Cooper, Jesse Ellison, and others. The 68th captured 52 Rebs in Bloomfield.

In his many raids throughout SE MO, Sam Hildebrand singled out several 68th EMM on his "kill list." We don't have all the names of the men Hildebrand hunted down and killed, however. It would be an understatement to say that many of the 68th EMM members were "enthusiastic," and sometimes to excess. That's what put some of them on Hildebrand's "kill list."

This unit was put together in mostly predominantly Rebel counties, and that is why members of this unit lived in Ripley, Carter, Butler, Iron, Madison, St. Francois, and other counties. In many or even most parts of MO each EMM regiment was formed from only one or two counties. Since the EMM remained at home in their civilian pursuits, you can visualize that EMM members had difficulty with the neighbors in strongly southern communities. Add to that mix a Sam Hildebrand with his "Kill Devil" rifle actually hunting down individual members of the 68th EMM, and you can see that the 68th was an exciting outfit.

Bruce Nichols