This was the unit surprised at Shaw's Shop. I'm putting together a file on it too, and think it was probably the highest combat engaged highest casualty EMM unit in Missouri during the war. Most EMM units never were called up, or if they were, did so for just a few days. A minority of EMM units saw a few weeks or a couple months service. This one saw months and months--I ran across one veteran who was in service for over 450 days. This company was one of the primary units engaged in the so-called Battle of Albany where Bill Anderson met his demise "at the hands of raw troops."

Very very interesting unit. Not only was it heavily engaged in fighting throughout 1864, it was manned primarily by members of the legendary Whitmer/Page family of founding of Mormonism fame.

Its Captain was David P. Whitmer, whose 1st Lieutenant was his first cousin John D. Page. Page's mother was the sister of Whitmer's father. Both men's fathers, Jacob Whitmer and Hiram Page, as well as their uncles Christian Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., and John Whitmer were five of the "Eight Witnesses" who said they saw and handled the golden plates which was the source material for the Book of Mormon (the other three being Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and Samuel Smith). Another Whitmer/Page uncle, Oliver Cowdery, was Joseph Smith's right hand man. The Whitmer/Page/Cowdery faction was excommunicated from the fold in the late 1830s as Smith took overall control, and was a factor in the Mormon War.

Anyway, the next generation of the Whitmer/Page family are thick in Company F, 51st EMM. THICK. I'm trying to figure out if 2nd Lt. William F. Ralston aka Rolston, fits into the family, and/or belonged to another excommunicated faction of the church. He was promoted to 1st Lt after Page was KIA on July 8, 1864.

For 160 years the the death of Bill Anderson and the way he died has dominated the historical writing on Ray County in the war. Riding to his doom almost single-handedly through 400 Federals, guns blazing while his men stopped and went the other way. All the while a number of fascinating, compelling stories waiting to see the light of day have been sitting there untold while overshadowed by that Bill Anderson narrative. (Regarding Anderson's death....I have a half dozen witness sources saying his regular horse had been shot a day or so before, and he was riding one that was inexperienced in combat -- it panicked under fire, and became unmanageable).