Pardon me while I raid on this side of the state line, but I recognize some of those names as southeast Missouri southern leaders who were in northeast Arkansas in June 1864 because Union troops in "the Bootheel" kept them from operating there. Some of these were leaders of irregulars. Terry, you may want to run this same query in "The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board," too, because I think you will get some response. I am curious to see what replies you get from Arkansas. Most of the names General Shelby placed in that order I do not recognize, so they may very well be "Arkansawers" (Did I say that right?).

Down to cases:

I may be wrong, but I think the "Bowen" mentioned in the 12 June 1864 order was Nathan Bolin of SE MO. According to "O.R." series 1, vol. 34, part 2, page 523, Nathan led about 50 southern irregulars or guerrillas in NE AR who crossed the St. Francis River and raided in the Missouri Bootheel about the last two weeks of May 1864. Just that raid alone may have been enough to get Bolin noticed in the Confederate command structure in north Arkansas that summer so General Shelby would put him on "the list." The Bolin brothers worked with notorious bushwhacker Sam Hildebrand from St. Francois and Jefferson Counties, MO and Bolin and Hildebrand based in Greene County, AR for much of 1863 and 1864, and conducted numerous raids back into SE MO. After General Price's great Missouri raid in autumn 1864, Nathan Bolin conscripted in that corner of NE AR well into early 1865, working with Colonels Solomon Kitchens and Timothy Reeves.

I am on more solid ground with brothers Beriah and Elijah Magoffin from Kentucky who under their dad Ebenezer and the rest of the family moved from KY to Pettis County, MO not long before the war started. They were very active in the southern Missouri State Guard from Pettis County at the beginning of the war, and that got them into trouble with the Yanks to the point they spent the rest of the war based in Arkansas. It seems Colonel Ebenezer Magoffin violated an oath he gave to the Federals by killing a Union sergeant at Georgetown just outside Sedalia, Pettis County, during 1861. When the Federals captured at least Ebenezer and Beriah Magoffin 19 December 1861 among about 1,500 others at Kirkpatrick's Mill or Blackwater River in northeast Johnson County, MO the Yanks were very happy to see Ebenezer and it looked grim for him. For that reason the two Magoffins were instrumental in the greatest escape of the war from Gratiot Street Military Prison in St. Louis the night of 25 and 26 July 1862 in which 35 POWs broke out using a tunnel and a bribed guard. The three Magoffins based somewhere in Arkansas for the rest of the war. (Sources: numerous, but Nichols, "Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, 1862," McFarland and Company, 2004, pages 10 and 127 and corresponding endnote # 15 of Chapter One on page 215 and endnote #49 of Chapter Fourteen on page 224 lists many of the references).

The Magoffins would not have been eager to return to Missouri under any circumstance, and that may be why General Shelby put a Magoffin on his list to bring the officer into some command with the eventual purpose to invade and liberate Missouri under Major General Sterling Price later in 1864. I have my doubts that whatever Magoffin General Shelby intended on that list actually cooperated to the point of leading Confederate troops into Missouri, but maybe he did. I am not certain if Shelby intended Major Elijah Magoffin or Major Beriah Magoffin, so maybe someone else can fill that part in for us.

Incidentally, Ebenezer was brother to Governor Magoffin of Kentucky, which also may have attracted unwanted attention to Ebenezer and his sons from the Federals.

Regarding the "Davis" on Shelby's list, I wonder if that may be Lieutenant Colonel J. F. Davies who commanded the Akansas Cavalry Battalion? I found mention of LTC Davies and his unit in Jim MGhee's "Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865," Univ. of Arkansas Press, 2008, page 79 while trying to discover the units for which Nathan Bolin conscripted (in this instance, Colonel Solomon Kitchen's 7th Missouri Cavalry, also known as the 10th MO Cav).

I draw a blank on Captains Hedrick, Mayo, Floyd, McAllister, Reson, and McMurray; but, if I find anything, I intend to return on another raid. Terry, I am glad to hear your health is strengthening, and I pray for your further recovery.

Bruce Nichols