Part of the problem is a surname like Forgerson is misspelled so many different ways, and the military of both sides was very good at misspelling. This also makes it harder to find your family in the 1860 census. People were careful about spelling their own name in those days, but other people were not always so careful or precise.

Please let us know where the Forgersons lived--what county and etc. I found some clues, but didn't know if it was your family or someone else without knowing where in Missouri to look.

You are correct that the Confederates had no prisons in Missouri by March 1863. The Union military forced them out of Missouri in early 1862. They used local jails or something that would work as a jail if they needed one. The Yankee side used local jails for less serious offenses, too.

Yankee authorites may have sent Jacob off to prison because stealing back his own horses is just one step from doing something more violent the next time, according to the way people think. Incidentally, the Union military prisons did not simply release a man, unless his military tribunal found him innocent--which was rare. More than likely his family had to post bond and Jacob had to take an oath not to bear arms against the U.S. in order to get out. Once out, he was a marked man and probably considered locally as "a notorious Rebel" by the Union authorities near where he lived. That is probably why he moved himself and his family to live with family in Salem, IL. Otherwise, he would be brought in as one of the "usual suspects" every time something happened in the area, or the local Union militia would suspect him of being "secesh" and make his life miserable or worse.

Tell us where he lived down to county or better, and we may be able to get closer to the whole story for you.

Bruce Nichols