My 1862 book has an error in the endnotes about the skirmish at "Sink Hole Woods" (Dyer copied it incorrectly from Union army reports as "Sink Pole Woods." My endnote number 9 for Chapter 11 mistakenly says one of the references is "O.R." vol. 3, p. 1325. That should read "O.R." vol. 8, pp. 638-40. This is also in Frederick Dyer's "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion", vol. 2, p. 801. Seems we have errors for everybody. Please accept my apology.).

The situation is thus according to BG James Totten's instructions 23 March 1862 to LTC J. H. Blood of the 6th Missouri Infantry (US) that was guarding the Pacific RR infrastructure in west Moniteau County ("O.R., series 1, vol. 8, pp. 638-40) . Totten had information that a body of new southern recruits said to number 60 to 150 was lingering in north Moniteau County prior to moving south to join the southern army in Arkansas. I don't know why these Boone County recruits were waiting in north Moniteau County. Perhaps they were waiting for the rest of their unit to cross the Missouri River. LTC Blood sent out his troops northeast from Tipton consisting of his own regiment, Captain Daniel Rice's independent company, and one section (two cannon) of 3rd Indiana Battery--total force 170 infantry, 90 cavalry, and the two pieces of artillery. Somewhere northeast of Tipton and east of Pisgah in the northwest corner of Cooper County or northern Moniteau County LTC Blood's force met the southerners at this "Sink Hole Woods" and defeated them in a skirmish. No other results are known. I do not have a better description of this location, either. That is all I have.

Bruce Nichols