The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Madison County, Missouri Militia

I am in agreement with Steven. The 24th Missouri Militia seems to be the only unit that fits the bill. Ironically, it was led by Colonel William T. Leeper, who has been the subject of postings on this board recently. I don't know for certain, but the Missouri State Archives will probably have muster rolls for this unit. Muster rolls are usually broken down by company, and are much more detailed than the rosters you had originally inquired about--they list every member of the unit and provide a bit of detailed information on each soldier (the enrollment lists referred to by Steve may have been compiled from muster rolls). Muster rolls also may make note of any obscure actions or activities the company was involved in for a given month--these notations oftentimes refer to actions found nowhere else in the historical record.

Just a note regarding why Joseph Johnson's unit would have been referred to as the Madison County Missouri Militia. The regiment itself likely never ever operated in the field as a regiment. The post-war Missouri Militia was formed primarily to deal with the lawless element, and you don't need a thousand men to handle a few trouble makers. The individual companies would have been raised in different localities, with the members of those companies answering to officers from those localities--thus, the reference to the unit by county name instead of by regiment name. Expanding upon this thought, sometimes these guys in these localized militia units didn’t even know the nature of the unit they were in or that they were a part of a larger organization. Take, for example, a statement made on a pension application by one John S. East--

"I enrolled in the Home Guards there in Lincoln County after I returned from Iowa in December, 1863, and Joe Howell was our captain, but I don't know the letter of the company or regiment, or for that matter whether there was a regiment---we didn't call it 'in the army' at all, and I know that we didn't get a discharge to enlist in the 49th.” The subject in question was speaking of his time in Company A, 37th Enrolled Missouri Militia Regiment.

Mike, if and when you do follow this avenue of research in regard to the Missouri State Archives muster rolls, you might make sure you are focusing on the 24th Missouri Militia and not the 24th Missouri Infantry, which are two totally different units with absolutely no relationship to one another.

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