Richard,

Most of the 82nd EMM were Platte Countians. Partly because of the Jayhawker raids there throughout the war, Captain Lewis A. Ford's Company C consisted largely of devoted southerners. I am using Kenneth Weant's research that gives me the roster, but you didn't indicate who you are researching, so I'll address Company C as a whole.

The dates of your man's service in the 82nd are consistent with the regiment's creation in 1863, and I think the 8 July 1864 date for ending their Union service roughly coincides with Confederate LTC Thornton's opening hostilities in Platte County using men who about that date ceased supporting the Union and began open hostilities against the North. The sources I used when I detailed LTC Thornton's campaign in July 1864 in Volume 3 of "Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri," you can find in Chapters 10, 16, 18, and 19. Thornton seems to generally keep his men together for the actions of July 7 (the raid on Parkville in Platte County), the raid on Platte City on July 10, the defeat on 13 July at Camden Point, and Captain Ford's surrender of himself and some parts of his Company C on 2 August 1864 to Union forces. Many of Captain Ford's 1864 men had been Confederate veterans earlier in the war, who used their earlier service to the Confederacy to survive the overwhelming odds against them in fall 18640 northwest Missouri during August 1864. The Federals were not inclined to leniency against captive "Paw ""paws" who took an oath to support the Union, wore the blue uniform, and carried Union rifles and then broke their oath. Many of the "turncoats" were captured and subsequently executed if not outright murdered.

Any questions? Bruce Nichols