This is a delicate topic, but I will do the best that I can with the information available to me.

Looking in Jim McGhee's 2008 "Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865" on pages 68-72 I see that Colonel John Q. Burbridge's 4th Missouri Cavalry Regiment was recruited across a large part of Missouri, but mostly in the northern Ozarks. Company E, your ancestor's company, was composed of men from Phelps, Pulaski, Texas, and Wright Companies (which all touch each other in that area). Burbridge's 4th MO Cav was part of BG John Sappington Marmaduke's Brigade, and when the Federals succeeded in capturing Helena, Akansas on July 4, the 4th was away on outpost duty and was not part of that defeat. Being on outpost duty meant that many of the men of the 4th were scattered over the countryside probably in small units, making it relatively easy for men to slip away if they were of a mind to do so.

Many were of that disposition, because by July 10 they would have known about the defeat at Helena and Vickburg that both fell on July 4 and the Confederate defeat at distant Gettysburg on July 3. This was a low water mark for the Confederacy, and that had to weigh heavily on the men.

Further, the Missouri Confederates were aware that guerrilla warfare was in full swing back home and it was particularly bitter in the northern Ozarks. This meant that farmers were not free to plant and harvest crops, and passing bodies of troops of both sides would often take what little food rural families had. Many of these men slipped away from their units to go home and ensure their families and friends were relatively safe and had food to eat, etc. A large number of these men returned to southern service later, but many did not. The Union forces occupying Missouri by summer of 1864 had grown adept at intercepting small groups of southerners moving across the countryside and killed or captured many. Their families and friends may not have learned of many of those who died in this manner. I examined Joane Chiles Eakins' "Missouri Prisoners of War" listing of the Union military prison ledgers in the St. Louis area and did not find the name of Pleasant Smelcer or any similar name.

Further, there were many on both sides who slipped away and went west to look for new opportunities in the gold rush in Montana or silver mines of Colorado or Nevada either still using their names or having given themselves new names and a new start.

This is the best I could do, but perhaps it gives you the climate of the times on July 10, 1863 for a soldier far from home on outpost duty.

Bruce Nichols