Kirby, if you keep digging on James Smith and his gang you will find that most of the family lore that came out of south Missouri was true and that the 7th Kansas and the 17th IL utilized the local militia groups as their guides. I and some others in south Missouri have been digging and the John J. Chilton stories are 75% or more confirmed now. We made the tie to McGee/Cato clan last Fall. What I transcribed in the earlier post was what was remaining of James Smith's "hit list". The previous month he was very active. Most of the killings in Reynolds, Carter, Shannon and Oregon County in late 1864 to June 1865 can be attributed to this same group, if not directly to Smith. Your work on Hildebrand and John Bradbury's and Lou Wehmer's work on Billy Monks have been invaluable. I have been compiling information to show the family connections that exist between many of the recorded casualties. Carl Burkhead, Elmer, John Russell, Gerald and others have been trying to bring this to light for some time. All of them had pieces to the puzzle. Maybe now we can tie it all together.

Jim Morris