Your information raised the possibility of another Union military organization or paramilitary organization that may have killed Walter Gilbert. I will get to that below.

First, for information about Walter Gilbert's 16th Missouri Infantry (also known as the 7th Missouri Infantry) see James E. McGhee's new "Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865" Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2008, pp. 233-237. If a nearby library doesn't have this book, you may purchase it or view it for a slight fee via interlibrary loan. Jim McGhee is one of the finest authorities on the Missouri Confederate regular units. He also monitors this forum and has helped me numerous times with information on that topic over the last few years. I have been citing Jim's new book in my own efforts ever since it came out.

McGhee says the Company D commander was Captain David M. RAKER not Baker. That triggered my memory that Raker recruited a company in this neighborhood in about August 1862. This recruiting was part of the huge Confederate recruiting campaign in August 1862 across a large part of west-central Missouri that led to the Lone Jack battle on August 16 in the southeast corner of neighboring Jackson County. Raker's dad or grandfather was later abused and murdered by the local Union militia because of David Raker's recruiting, according to a local source. I recall that old man Raker was made to run alongside the Union horses in the snow to the place where they shot the unarmed man down, so this must have taken place in the winter of 1862-1863.

I looked up the location of the Gilbert land based on the legal description you provided. It is located very near Lost Creek equidistant from Kingsville, Rose Hill, and Big Creek (about 3-5 miles from each one). There was a Union militia company at Kingsville which was active first in one unit designation and then in another since the start of hostilities in Missouri in the summer of 1861. I think Leroy Duncan was designated the company commander of the newly-formed 40th Enrolled Missouri Militia at the end of October 1862 that included these Kingsville men. This company fought on and off with the many pro-southern neighbors of this neighborhood throughout much of the war. Johnson County was a hot combat zone. I have no direct evidence, but there is a chance that in early September when Burris' Fort Leavenworth expedition was riding through this area and the patrol of the 1st Iowa Cavalry from Clinton was nearby the local militia may have been encouraged to act up again and shot up some of the southern neighbors again. These may have been the men who killed Captain Raker's relative later, too. This is just another possibility. On 7 May 1865 Archie Clement's (of Kingsville before the war) passing guerrilla band captured and shot down Duncan's son and seven other of his men at Kingsville, so "what comes around goes around" to coin a phrase.

This is just another of several different Union outfits that could have been the ones that killed Walter Gilbert on 9 September 1862. Any one of them could have done the deed. As they say on TV each one "had motive and opportunity." Take your pick. We will probably never know for sure.

Bruce