That action is listed, too, in Frederick Dyer's "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion," and it described one or two actions near Martinsburg, southeast Audrain County, MO. Alvin Cobb of Montgomery County and his company of southerners from hiding shot up a passing buggy carrying two Union officers of Company A, 1st MO Reserve Corps, killing one and severely wounding the other. There is controversy about this as men from the same Union unit burned Cobb's house, and some sources indicate a skirmish Cobb's men fought with elements of the 1st Missouri Reserve Corps also on July 17 or the following day. There are several sources that touch on what happened near Martinsburg on July 17 (and possibly July 18) including two county histories, newspaper accounts, and other Union records. Historian Joseph Mudd, the author of "With Porter in North Missouri" investigated the activities of July 17 to clear the record to prevent some accounts from pushing this incident into folklore. This action propelled Alvin Cobb into the Civil War in Missouri hereafter as a guerrilla leader. Do you need the references for the resources about the Martinsburg incident(s)?

Bruce Nichols