This one is a real puzzle to me. Company F, as well as the rest of the 89th EMM, was established in December 1863, long after most of the rest of the EMM program was initiated in the summer of 1862. In fact, this was one of the last--or the last--of any of the EMM regiments created. All three of the Company F officers: Captain Brazelton Jones, First Lieutenant Columbus C. Jones, and Second Lieutenant George W. Newby were placed in their positions in December 1863 and remained in those positions until the EMM program was dismantled in March 1865. I studied those three officer's cards in the MO SOS site, as well as the other men you named and used the alphabetical roster of the 89th EMM to look up a few other names in Company F.

NONE of the records or cards indicated ANY active duty of any kind. The only activity I noticed for some Company F men was that the Commission of Exemptions assigned them to Company F all on 30 April 1864. Just the name of that commission leads me to believe that the men that commission assigned to Company F did so to exempt them from the draft. Possibly, these men paid their $300 or whatever the exemption fee was and obtained exemption. This was not the case with the Biggerstaff, Fry, and Jones men you named as your ancestors. There is absolutely nothing on their records except the note in remarks to say there is only a mention of them on one roll and nothing else.

I seem to think your ancestors lived in Plattsburg, the county seat of Clinton County, or at least in Concord Township which surrounds Plattsburg in the center of the county, although I didn't look them up in the census records. Perhaps they were businessmen or operated farms there. As member of the EMM, they would be entitled to remain at their civilian pursuits until and unless the State called up their individual EMM company for some kind of enemy threat in their region. This emergency happened in July 1864 and then again in September and October 1864.

A large number of the EMM units were called to active duty that summer to defend against guerrillas and a large-scale Confederate insurgency formed for many months in great secrecy by behind-Union-lines Confederate recruiters Colonel John Winston and LTC John Calhoun Thornton headquartered in nearby Platte County. That insurgency came into the open on 7 July with an attack on Parkville in south Platte County. Union troops had already captured Colonel Winston, so LTC Thornton carried this insurgency into action. The Union authorities activated lots of the EMM and brought also other units in to fight Thornton's uprising. LTC Thornton was faced by strong Union active, regular cavalry so he took his force on mobile warfare moving around about eight counties in northwest Misosuri north of the Missouri River.

As George noted in his reply, Companies B & E were activated by the state EMM organization in May 1864, were called the "Clinton County EMM," and performed valiant service in the region for several months against southern guerrillas and Confederate behind-Union-lines recruiters.

Now, the EMM were lousy at record-keeping, so just because we see nothing on the cards shown on the MO SOS site, doesn't mean they didn't do anything. They were simply not good at writing it down. Some of the 89th EMM joined the amalgamated volunteer unit in the paragraph below and saw action during July 1864 during a southern insurgency active in their region.

Now, all or part of the 89th (which parts I don't know) joined with other area EMM units during July 1864 in Major Samuel P. Cox of Daviess County's temporary guerrilla hunter unit which was not named. My source for this is "Official Records," series 1, vol. 41, part 1, pp. 60-62, part of which is Cox' own detailed report. Major Cox' unit was composed of parts of the 30th, 31st, 33rd, 48th, 57th,65th,89th, and possibly other EMM units of that region. Major Cox formed his unit after prompting from the Union District of North Missouri to chase and fight LTC Thornton's large Rebel force and two security teams composed of Charles Fletcher Taylor's guerrilla company formerly under Quantrill from mostly south of the Missouri River and Confederate Captain John Thrailkill's guerrilla company composed mostly of southern men from north of the Missouri River. Major Cox amassed about 640 of these miltiamen and followed the larger Rebel group across Caldwell County to Clinton County just after John Thrailkill demanded the surrender of Plattsburg, county seat of Clinton County, on 21 July 1864. One of the captains of Companies B & E of 89th EMM flatly refused Thrailkill's demand and then forted up inside the courthouse while Thrailkill's men looted some of the outlying buildings of the town, but staying out of range of the 89th EMM rifle-muskets and shotguns kept in the courthouse. Just a few hours after Thrailkill's guerrilla band rode off, Union Major Cox with his 640 men rode up to Plattsburg. Cox and his men were following Thrailkill's trail that led them later to Union Mills near the northeast corner of Platte County on 22 July. Cox' polyglot force there attacked Thrailkill's guerrilla force of about 200 in thickets for some minutes until the bushwhackers withdrew with a few casualties. This was highly unusual for EMM troops who were designed only for defensive service and not well enough officered, trained, mounted, or armed to perform real offensive action. The guerrillas were surprised and kept trying to figure out who they were fighting. Cox' men had mainly single-shot rifle-muskets, so individual shooters could only place one shot and then back off to reload while another man stepped up to fire his shot in the thick brush of the battlefield. Total casualties seemed to be 7 guerrillas killed and several wounded compared with one EMM killed, 3 severely wounded, and others less seriously wounded. Immediately after the Union Mills fight Cox suspended his force to allow his men to go home and rest, as they had been tracking the guerrillas for two or three days with little forage, food, or water, and most of them had crops to tend at home. Meanwhile, General Clinton B. Fisk, commanding the district, had already sent in their place other units to keep pressure on the southerners.

As I said above, Major Cox wrote in his report that parts of the 89th were part of his force. He mentioned a Captain Jones, but I cannot tell which Jones he meant--perhaps Brazelton Jones--we just can't tell. Further, it's possible that some men of Company F were part of Major Cox' force without their officers, as this happened rather quickly. The reason Cox had to follow the Rebels westward across Caldwell County is that when the southerners rode through, Cox was organizing many of these men in the northeast corner of Caldwell County, and then Cox and his force had to follow the southerners as they rode west. As Cox' large force was joined along the way by many of the EMM men from various places to the point that by the time they reached Plattsburg Cox found himself commanding about 640 men in all from several counties around there.

Even after the Thornton insurgency died down, the Union district commander called another militia major to form a similar unit to fight against "Bloody Bill" Anderson and other guerrilla groups in September and October 1864 in this same region. Therefore, it is possible that some of the 89th men got into that one, too, and it was never written in their individual records.

You asked; "Are there additional CSR's other than the ones in the MO SOS has?" Yes, I have heard there are company reports and regimental ones too filed perhaps by the week or month which should give some information about what Company F or the 89th EMM was doing. I have not traveled to see these, but have seen some in microfilm in St. Louis for other EMM units. Before you come to Missouri, I recommend you inquire at the MO Secretary of State's Office to identify precisely what these are and where you can see them. I think the Kansas City and St. Louis public libraries and the State Historical Society of MO in Columbia and the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis have such records, too. Before you travel, you need to inquire ahead precisely what they have and where to find it. I know the St. Louis Public Library is closed until December for massive remodeling. I apologize that my reply is not precise on this point.

Good hunting!

Bruce Nichols