Nice work, Homer. I found the record for Henry's military service during 1862 and 1863. He served in Captain J.N.E. Moser's Company E of the local 43rd Enrolled Missouri Militia Regiment (EMM). This company was organized in California, county seat of Moniteau County, in late July and early August, 1862, when the EMM program was cranked up across the state. I like to call it Missouri's emergency private army of seventy-some-odd regiments of poorly led, poorly trained, poorly armed, poorly paid, and....well, you get the picture. The entire apparatus was thrown together at the last minute to combat the hundreds of southern guerrillas and Confederate behind-Union-lines recruiters then at work in many parts of the state. There are a number of earlier messages in this forum that explain the organization, history, and funtions of the EMM or point you to websites that describe it.

Private Henry GEMUNDEN (with this spelling, it is no wonder you didn't find it before) enrolled in Company E 28 July 1862 at California, county seat of Moniteau County, and was ordered into active duty at California 8 August 1862, probably to guard the firearms stored probably in the courthouse for the local EMM. He probably performed other guard duty, assisted the nearest Union military provost marshal ferret out secessionists in the community (Moniteau County had lots of 'em), and serve as guide for any passing Union troops who wanted to ride cross-country and look for guerrillas. Henry was relieved from active duty 8 November 1862, probably because the bushwhackers generally went south for the winter and there was less need for his services.

A second service card states that Henry ws ordered into active service again 6 September 1863, serving 47 days in all until 22 October, 1863. His service in October was during Confederate Colonel Jo Shelby's great raid from SW MO to the Saline County area and back again to Arkansas. It is possible that Corporal Henry Gemunden (He was promoted 24 September 1862, according to the remark at the bottom of the card.) may have seen some action during Shelby's raid, but the card does not address that. The remark at the card bottom says that Corporal Gemunden served 29 days active duty in 1863. I think it also says that he was also a "...SGT in 1863 service" but failed to give details (and is hard to read). I read that to mean that Corporal Gemunden was promoted to Sergeant, but I am not sure.

Some men and officers of the 43rd EMM were selected to serve on full-time active duty in the 9th Provisional EMM Regiment between April and November 1863, but Henry's officers were not selected, and I doubt he was part of that program. The Prov EMM was sort of a "super EMM" made of men culled from the EMM program as a whole. The 43rd EMM was at a disadvantage to be selected for the 1863 Prov EMM because it was split between men of Buchanan County near St. Joseph and Moniteau and Morgan Counties of central MO. All three of those counties were home to lots and lots of southerners, and combined with it's split status, the 43rd was a tough unit in which to serve.

Henry's officers were Captain J. N. E. Moser and Second Lieutenant John Gatschet, both appointed to their positions probably by vote of the men in August and September 1862. Both men were removed from command by Special Orders Number 126 in spring 1864 for "being too hard on the rebels," if you can believe that! (Source: "Annual Report of the MO Adj General's office for 1865," pages 567-8). You see, the EMM was a Missouri state army, not normally controlled by the Union army. Special Orders Number 126 was actually a political move by the moderates in command of the governor's chair and the General Assembly, and it was a last gasp against the radical northerners who gained control of the state in the November 1864 election and turned the state toward more radical leadership. The difference was that the moderates strived to woo their "erring brothers" back into to fold and stop all that secession and rebellion nonsense. The radicals, including many or most of the Union soldiers, could only see victory with the military defeat of their erring southern brethren, and, if left to their own devices by the politicians, set out to do just that.

Just from the two service cards I saw for Henry, I cannot say if he saw actual combat. Remarks in the "Official Records" indicate that Henry's part of the regiment was activated and protected the Pacific Railroad infrastruction at California and Tipton during Shelby's October 1863 raid ("O.R." series 1, vol. 22, part 1, pp. 665-6). Parts of Shelby's raiders got very close to this area and other Union units (7th Cavalry Missouri State Militia [MSM]) fought with them from a moving railroad locomotive in this area, as I have read. During General Sterling Price's great Missouri raid of September and October 1864 the 43rd EMM was again activated (nearly all the EMM units were activated across the state for that one) and MAY have taken part in the successful defense of Jefferson City, the capital. From what Homer provided, perhaps Henry was no longer in Missouri at that time. The southern army moved through California after the siege of Jeff City, and destroyed some of the Pacific Railroad infrastructure there as they moved past, and were, in turn, shelled by Union artillery just east of town.

Sorry I cannot provide more for you.

Bruce Nichols