Charles,

It's good to hear from you again. There is a little information about Captain Joe Payne during 1861:

Peterson, McGhee, Lindberg, and Daleen in their landmark 1995 "Sterling Price's Lieutenants" on page 103 mentions this name as a captain of Missouri State Guard early in the war leading a Montgomery County company.

Eakin and Hale's 1993 "Branded As Rebels" on page 341 says "Payne, Joe. Captain of a Company of men from Audrain County. Recruited men from Middletown Township, Montgomery County in 1861. He was with Caleb Dorsey at Mt. Zion Church on December 28, 1861 [north Boone County]. He later went into the regular CSA. Reference: 1885 history of Montgomery County." Unfortunately, I don't have the page number in the 1885 Montgomery County history.

The 1860 census lists a household under "H. Payne" in Wilson Township of west Audrain County; and two households under L.P. and L. P. Payne, Jr. in Salt River Township of west-central Audrain County. None in Montgomery County, though.

An Alf Payne recruited in summer 1862 in Audrain and Montgomery Counties and signed up a half dozen men of French ancestry along the Cuivre River according to the
"Chronicles of Monroe County" published in 1904, but in the 1993 printing this is on page 8.

Bruce Nichols