Glennon,

You didn't give me much to work with here, but I wonder if your Colonel Samuel Holmes was not a Civil War colonel. Perhaps his title derives from another source than the War Between the States. I could not find him listed in Sifakis or in "Price's Lieutenants," which are two very good sources for Missouri Civil War colonels. Possibly, he was not from MO in Civil War times, as you suggest. I checked the MO 1860 Census index prepared by the LDS and found Samuel Holmeses in Knox, DeKalb, Clay, Stoddard, Saline, Mercer, and Pulaski Counties--none even close to Franklin County. This may be another clue that COL Holmes moved to MO after the war.

Bruce Nichols