I see there was a Casper Hedrick in Watkins Township, Dent County and another one in Liberty Township of southeast Bollinger County according to the 1860 Missouri Census. I was wondering which one you referred to when I got lucky and found on the online Missouri State Archives Private Casper Headrich of Captain J. R. Cochran's "Cochran's Bollinger County VMM" (Veteran Missouri Militia). This Headrich enrolled in this organization at Dallas [also known as Marble Hill] 8 April 1865 and started on active duty there the same day. His record says he served 90 days of active duty in all, and that is all that card says of him.

I am not very knowledgeable about Cochran's controversial unit, but it appears to me that this outfit was organized to prevent lawlessness during the transition between military law and civil law in this area. In some parts of Missouri that transition period lasted all of five minutes, because the residents (those that were left) were anxious to put the war behind them and get on with their lives and planting season. However, there were parts of Missouri where people of both sides felt they hadn't put in the last word (and bullet) about the horrible civil war that was quickly drawing to a close. Further, many northern sympathizers were fearful about what would happen when all those returning southern soldiers came back, and whether any of those had any unfinished business with former friends and neighbors.

Bear in mind that just because Casper joined an outfit with the word "veteran" in the title doesn't mean that he was a veteran. Hopefully, there are other records that would tell you that. This is really all I have on him.

You asked about the "various players in this scenario." If you are referring to Private Casper's buddies in the good old "Cochran's Bollinger County VMM" than go to http://sos.mo.gov/archives/soldiers and enter the name "Casper Headrich", follow the prompts until you get to the link with the unit name and hit that. Doing this I found Casper and his 96 buddies in an alphabetical roll of this unit. Perhaps some of them are other kinfolk of yours. Don't expect to find Casper Hedrick of Dent County on there, though, since that is a long way from Bollinger County.

Bruce Nichols