Here's detail on how so many of the Feds ended up escaping at Shaw's Shop, and the effect their tactic would would appear to have had a mere five days later at Goslin's Lane.

Almost 50 years after the skirmish one Alfred Kincaid left an account of the Shaw's Shop scrap. Note that Kincaid had served in the 51st EMM. He had 15 brothers and sisters, with at least two other siblings in the 51EMM, two in the U.S. Volunteers, and two more in C.S. Volunteers. He was also related by marriage to the Grimes family, meaning there was also a connection to the senior commanding officer of the 51st EMM.

Anyway, Kincaid mentioned Feds belonging to the command of David Whitmer were at Shaw's Shop and "were encamped in a nice grove of young timber just east of William Shaw's residence.... This grove was enclosed by a rail fence that was staked and ridered. The public road leading from Richmond to Carrollton passed on the north side of this enclosure.... The good citizens living around in that locality had made a big dinner for Lieutenant Ralston and his men. Captain Whitmer was not there that day. It was a lovely feast of good things to eat, spread on white tablecloths."

Now Kincaid said the attackers were under Bill Anderson. Versions differ--Anderson, George Todd, Thrailkill.... I tend to think Todd and/or Thrailkill is accurate based upon what ended up happening at Goslin's Lane five days later. I'll get to that in a bit.

Anyway, to pick Kincaid's interesting narrative back up--"...The pickets had been fired upon by Captain Bill Anderson's men. The pickets were falling back on a dead run--and Anderson's men were in hot pursuit. One of the pickets had been killed in the first fire--the other two had made a safe run to the camp. The gates being opened to the inclosure, the pickets dashed in with Captain Anderson's men at their heels."

"The feasting was not thought of any more that day. Lieutenant Ralston saw he was trapped. His men had left their guns setting against the trees--and their horses tied to the other trees nearly fifty yards away and unsaddled.... William Shaw opened the gate that led into the corn field to the south. Through this gate the mounted militia dashed, with Anderson's men in hot pursuit. Many of the militia fled on foot to the corn field. Elias McBee was killed after he had gotten some distance into the corn field. The corn had been half cut, leaving eight rows between each shock row standing--therefore, it did not furnish much protection to the militia. Some crawled into corn shocks and thus saved their lives....

"...The bushwhackers returned to the camp in the grove, and swiped the militia's dinner. After an hour or two, Captain Bill Anderson moved on east.... Lieutenant Ralston had four men killed, and one man wounded, who afterwards died.... This fight was altogether a one-sided affair, in which the militia loss was small, considering the disadvantages in which they fought...."

So, note that five days later Todd, Todd and Thrailkill descend upon the 3rd Missouri State Militia wagon train at Goslin's Lane on September 23, 1864, gaining complete surprise, just like at Shaw's. At Goslin's the Feds scatter, just like at Shaw's, with a number of them dashing into a nearby cornfield, just like at Shaw's, and hide in corn shocks, just like at Shaw's.

Now elsewhere on this board you'll find me conversing with the son of a woman who had told me 20 years ago about her ancestor, Thomas Hobbs, Company G, 3rd MSM Cavalry, who passed his personal story down through the family about how he had escaped at Goslin's Lane by hiding in a corn shock. And that the Rebs took sabers they had just captured from the Fed wagons and stabbed them into the corn shocks. One such saber was stuck into Hobbs' corn shock, and raked him across the abdomen. For Hobbs it was suffer quietly or die. Hobbs ended up carrying the belly scar he would show off until the day he died 66 years later.

Since hearing that story I have verified this Goslin's Lane oral account by coming up with three written accounts speaking about the Confederates using sabers on corn shocks at Goslins Lane.

Curiously, one researcher once challenged me that the hiding in corn shocks account can't be true because A) Corn isn't grown around Woodlandville in Boone County where Goslin's Lane is situated, and B) Corn isn't harvested in Missouri in September. I love people who make up facts to try to support a theory and had to laugh at this because I visited the Goslin's site in summer of 2001, and corn fields abounded around the area including right across the road from the old Goslin's farm site. And I can't speak as to central Missouri, but in my neck of the woods on the High Plains corn starts being cut in September.

Anyway, it seems to me that the Confederates having just came up against the problem of Feds hiding in corn shocks on Sept. 18, 1864 at Shaw's Shop, learned from experience and found a use for a wagonload of captured Federal sabers at Goslin's Lane on Sept. 23, 1864.