I have been thinking about this, and I believe I figured it out. However, all I have is circumstantial evidence. I will lay out my evidence, circumstantial as it, and see if you think I have a case or not.

I, too, read Union Captain Albert Tracy's journal years ago and asked myself the same question you voiced in this forum. When was the fight in California and who was involved? I could not identify any fight, and perhaps there never was one, at least in town.

Here is the crux of my case. There were two fatal train shootings perpetrated by members of Captain Inglish's local southern unit in August at the hill and steep cut just west of Centertown in west Cole County a few miles east of California. I researched this several years ago, and perhaps you have some material on these incidents described below, as well.

The first shooting took place August 11 or 12 in which two individuals behind trees fired on a train carrying a few Union troops about one half mile west of Lookout Station (present-day Centertown) on a hill inside a deep cut. The family story of the shooters from near McGirk says that the train stopped after the first shot, but started up again after the second shot and hurried away from the scene. (We have already discussed the identity of the two shooters, as you will recall.) The two shooters did not know that they managed to shoot to death Conductor Frederick Whipple of the area as their only victim. I imagine that they took Whipple with his blue uniform as just another Yankee, and I seem to recall one source said he was standing in an open boxcar or car platform talking to northern soldiers and was therefore mistaken for one of them.

Sources for the first shooting include the period newspapers "Daily Missouri Democrat" of St. Louis on 13 August 1861 and the "Jefferson City Examiner," of 17 August 1861 and 31 January 1862. Ford's 1938 "History of Jefferson City" on pages 134-5 has a bit on it, too. The 1860 census of Moniteau County in the western part shows on page 713 household number 725 in the name of 63-year-old Mildred Robinson contained among others 27-year-old, Rhode Island-born Fred Whipple and 22-year-old, Missouri-born Lucy Whipple. Frederick Whipple is buried in the St.Paul's Lutheran Cemetery in California with date of death 12 August 1861. Gloria Knipp of near Tipton on 4 September 2008 in this forum discussed this incident in "Re: Fight at California," and that must be where I obtained the burial information. I seem to recall Gloria added that Tipton, near where Whipple lived, did not have a Lutheran cemetery, and the nearest one was in California.

Captain Inglish and his local southern company chose the same spot to ambush another train carrying a large number of Union home guards from several communities to the west on 20 August 1861. Word got around that this train was bringing northern home guards from Warrensburg and another community to Jefferson City to help defend the city from possible Rebel attack, so Captain English was forewarned enough to get his men into position. Evidently, the same two shooters from 11 or 12 August were part of his company and may have recommended the ambush site to their captain. When the train slowed to ascend the hill and deep cut west of Lookout Station English's company opened fire killing three and wounded several of the guardsmen. The train stopped and the remaining guardsmen formed up and attacked, but English's men mounted and quickly departed. Unfortunately, three of the southerners' horses shied away, perhaps at the shooting and train whistle, and the northern guardsmen caught and shot the trio to death on the spot. I don't have their names. By any chance, do you have their names?

When the train bearing the battle-scarred home guardsmen reached Jefferson City, a newly-promoted brigadier general of Illinois troops temporarily in charge there named Grant ordered the guardsmen to take the train back out to the neighborhood of the shooting and ensure that the southerners there committed no further attacks on the trains. Evidently, the guardsmen performed this task with glee, burning many homes in the area, including one mentioned in the 1980 Moniteau County History (I forgot the family name).

Since Inglish's company was known as a California company, I wondered if those northerners took the train also to town and performed the mayhem and property damage there that Captain Tracy saw a few weeks later when he marched past with his unit. Another factor which may have encouraged those home guardsmen to attack California is the rapid Rebel stand by C. P. Anderson editor of the "California Weekly News." I read some of Anderson's 1861 editorials, and they were very inflammatory against Lincoln and his so-and-so Dutchmen. I read that Mr. Anderson acted as sergeant of arms at the Secession Meeting at the State Capitol early in 1861, and I have also read that Anderson was jailed twice early in the war for his fiery pro-southern stance in his newspaper. After the second jail term Anderson had a change of heart and the "California Weekly News" was far more neutral in its editorial opinions for the remainder of the war.

Sources for the second attack near Lookout Station include:
--"Civil War in Missouri," "Missouri Historical Review" vol. 8 (October 1913), p. 19 authored by Grover;
--"Maj. Emory S. Foster," "Missouri Historical Review" vol. ? (April-July 1920), p. 426, also authored by Grover;
--Ford, "History of Jefferson City," 1938, pp. 135-6;
--Ford, "History of Moniteau County," 1936, pp. 141-2;
--U. S. Gov't, "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," series 1, vol. 3, p. 140 and series 2, vol. 1, p. 216;
--"Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal" 17 August 1976 (forgot to write down the headline);
--Carolyn Bartels, "The Forgotten Men" (of the southern Missouri State Guard), 1995, Two Trails Publishing, Independence, pp. 204-5;
--Frederick Dyer, "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion," vol. 2 of 3 listing battles and skirmishes, p. 798 "Attack Near Lookout Station," Union troops engaged: Missouri Home Guard, Union loss: 1 killed, 6 wounded.

The Bartels reference and the second of the "Official Records" citations above concerns the military tribunal in Jefferson City on 23 February 1862 of Charles L. Gish who testified that Andrew Kinney, who served with him in Captain Inglish's Company E, 6th Division, Missouri State Guard during August and September 1861, told him that he was in Company E as one of 15 or 20 who shot at the train near Lookout Station about 1 August 1861 at which time several soldiers were killed.

Well, circumstantial as it is, that is my theory about how California came to appear so beat up to Captain Tracy marching past on October 8, 1861. I could be wrong, but I think Captain Tracy was mistaken in his assumption that some battle must have taken part there. I assess that several dozen very angry Union home guardsmen from out of town can perform enought damage to a town to make it appear that a battle took place there, especially if they read the "California Weekly News" in its initial editorial form before Editor Anderson "saw the light," as it were.

Bruce Nichols