I would also mention that in doing research on one of my relatives, Tom Rose, http://www.mogenweb.org/lincoln/clips/clp-rose-thomas.pdf, who was hung in Quincy (Adams County) at the close of the war, I found that the Quincy Public Library's search engine for their historical newspapers is useful. Use the advanced search for best results and search all papers. You may be able to find info on some of those counties via a quick search within certain years.
With Tom Rose in the shootout near Lima were a few men from Missouri: Thomas Wilson, and two brothers going by Sneed who were really Cobbs from Buchanan County. Tom himself was from Lincoln County so I have no clue how he got connected with the others. Granted this raid they had planned on Canton, Missouri was going to happen after the war so this may not even be legitimate for me to mention here but the post had been mentioned to me so thought I'd toss these resources to other researchers.
Thomas