From "Behind Enemy Lines"

http://www.luftex.com/lonejack.htm

James J. Searcy had been been a professor at the University of Missouri. He served briefly as First Lieutenant of the Columbia (Missouri) Home Guards Company, then as a Captain in Colonel Caleb Dorsey's Provisional Regiment of the Second Division, MSG. Peterson, et al., Sterling Price's Lieutenants, p. 134. He subsequently served as Colonel of Searcy's Missouri Cavalry Regiment during the Missouri Campaign of 1864, but his command was downgraded and dismounted in 1865 to become Searcy's Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion, and he ultimately surrendered as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Confederate Organizations, Officers, and Posts, pp. 52 & 86.

The best first hand account of the Battalion may be in the James Kennedy Collection (1836-1927) #A418 in the manuscript holdings of the Missouri State Historical Society. Kennedy was a Major (Co. B)in Searcy's Battalion and wrote his first hand account of Prices 1864 Raid and unit activities.

And FWIW the SCV chapter in Columbia MO is the Col. James J. Searcy Camp #1923.

I'm sure others may have more detailed info.

John R.