Thank you for the time you expended on this issue. I am working on a Civil War Family History for my family, and Camden County will make an interesting chapter. In looking a little further back, the Adam Kinder family was in Cape Girardeau County in 1850, so they moved to Camden County at some point in the 1850s. Adam's daughter Sarah A. Kinder is my next direct descendant. As far as I can ascertain, from the State of Missouri military website and the National Park Service site, several of Adam's sons (Sarah's brothers or half brothers) apparently served:

John W. Kinder, who is in Camden County in 1860, is listed as being in the 3rd Battalion Missouri Infantry, which was later joined into the 6th Missouri Infantry Regiment. I understand this was a State Guard unit, and would indicate that he was very pro-Southern. However, it does not appear that he went with the unit across the Mississippi. There is a John Kinder also listed as being in the 56th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. I assume this is John W. Kinder, as two of his brothers and various cousins were in the same unit (see below).

Eli N. J. Kinder, also a 1860 Camden County resident, is listed in the 56th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia.

Martin Van Buren Kinder, also in Camden County in 1860, is listed with the Confederate 8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment (C.S.A.). Later, he is also listed in the 56th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia, and with King’s Company, Volunteer Missouri Militia.

It also appears two first cousins, Daniel F. Kinder and Absalom P. Kinder, were also in the 8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment. Absalom also was later in the 56th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. Another cousin, Henry J.W. Kinder, was also in the 56th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. Another cousin, Cornelius N. Kinder, was in the 2nd Regiment Missouri Cavalry (Missouri State Guard), and later Tacke’s Company, Enrolled Missouri Militia.

To me, it looks like a basically Confederate family, with some members dropping out of the Confederate forces by mid-war, only to end up in the 56th Militia, possibly only in response to a call up for Price’s Raid. This could explain the exodus of the family from a Union controlled county.

On a separate, but interesting, note, my ggg grandmother Sarah Ann Kinder married James Piper in the 1850s, and is in the Bollinger County census in 1860. I have been unable to confirm whether he served (there is a James Piper in a Federal engineer unit). However, James died in the late 1860s, and in 1870 Sarah is with her son James and daughter Rachel in Cape Girardeau County. Sarah apparently died in the 1870s, and in 1880 the daughter is with a non-Kinder family in Cape Girardeau County, while James (my gg grandfather) is with another non-Kinder family in Texas. It seems strange that they are not with other Kinder family members – perhaps there was some bad blood due to the war (if the elder James Piper was indeed a Unionist).

Bret