I get the picture. Thank you very much, John. Thorough work as usual. I believe you found about all there is left in print to be found, unless somebody else pops into this with more information from little known sources.

As you hinted, parts of Cooper County's 52nd EMM were not content to wait at home, but hunted known southerners in that area. Lots of Cooper County men performed Confederate service, so the 52nd had lots of targets. I came across a number of indicators that the 52nd was "aggressive."

I believe the elements of the 52nd in east Cooper County may have found more than their match with some of the Odneal men. You mentioned that George C. Odneal and James Mason Odneal were in "Elliott's command" or "Elliott's Regt." Allow me to introduce you to Captain Benjamin Franklin Elliott of Company I, in Shelby's own 5th Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Shelby saw special talent in Elliott and had the captain develop and pick the men of Elliott's "company of guides and spies," which Elliott later recruited into a whole battalion and later with a promotion to lieutenant colonel into his own regiment, the 9th Missouri Cavalry, known as "Elliott's Scouts." In essence, Elliott operated his own elite force within an elite force called the "Iron Brigade." This means that Elliott's men served as Shelby's long distance reconnaisance force and were expert in infiltrating and, when needed, escape and evasion. These were smart, confident, savvy men who could squeeze out of tight spots by their wits but not afraid of a fight. Elliott handpicked each man from other commands, is my understanding. If these men had unfinished business with one or more of the Goods, its a wonder that only two of the Goods died at the farm on 27 May. I suppose they were unaware of the younger son in the house, and he got the drop on them. Maybe the Odneals were not among those five riders, but we will probably never know.

It appears, and I cannot prove, that those five riders were part of a traveling group of 46 returning Confederates who took a few days away from their trek north in the Osage River basin in Laclede, Camden, Hickory, and Benton Counties during middle May 1865 to hunt down some local northerners who they believed may have taken part in the attack upon a similar group of returning Confederates in this same area one month before. These Rebels were incensed to learn the Yanks gunned down members of this April 1865 group while they were in the waters of the wide and deep Osage River causing a number of the southern travelers to drown in their desperation to get away from the shooters.

I personally don't believe hunting up the Goods was part of that escapade, but some other action that those five men felt required their vengeance. The note they left on Jacob Good's body is our only clue.

Although I was in touch with a Good descendant some years back, after an initial exchange I did not hear from him again. Unless he comes forward, I'm content to leave this story where it is, fascinating though it is.

Unrelated to this story, another traveling group of Rebels also in May 1865 ran afoul of Union Captain Babcocke's local militia in south Miller County and the captain and his men killed 16 of them in one spot. I have no idea of the identity of these southerners. There is no proof they were of this area, and may have been traveling through on their way to northeast Missouri. Many of them probably surrendered at Shreveport, LA and were on their way home. Like the Good farm attack, there is little documentation of this action, because Union authorities were already shipping as many troops as they could west to battle Indians on the plains and with the advent of peace had little interest in Missouri squabbles any more. My main source was the 1971 "Judge Jenkins' History of Miller County," on page 444. Newspapers did not have much to say either about the April and May violence involving the traveling southern bands in the center of the state through what is now Lake of the Ozarks. I would like to know more, but it appears these incidents were too well hidden back then to come to light now. It's a shame, though, because a lot of descendants would probably like to know why their ancestors surrendered in Louisiana, but failed to come home to Missouri.

Bruce Nichols