The citation would look like: Rick Reed, "Fight Near Centraly!" "Western Campaigner," vol. 4, no. 7 (September 1983). I am not familiar with the magazine "Western Campaigner," but that's where you will find it. The letter is typescript, very long, and contains lots of names and events that somebody can sink their teeth into. When I last studied the letter, I concluded the skirmish it narrated took place in or near Cedar County, probably based on what I include below. I missed that note earlier today, or I would have mentioned it. Nancy J. Wilingham wrote the letter on 7 June 1863 and addressed it to Susan and Jane Crockett in St. Clair County.

I ran some of the names in the letter in the index to the 1860 census and made these notes:
--J. H. Willingham Box Township NW Cedar County;
--Mary J. and Robert C. Crocket of Quincy in Hickory County;
--David G. Crocket Mooney Township Polk County;
--James P. & John L. & R. G. Crockett Speedwell Township St. Clair County;
--Asa Strain Cedar Townshiip N-central Cedar County;
--Elizabeth & Robert O. Horn Lynn township S-central Cedar County;
--Samuel H. Horn Washington Township NE Cedar County;
--Joseph & Rachel Upton Charlotte Township Bates County
--John Upton Looney Township south-central Polk County.

Most of what Wilingham describes is what I call "who hit John" stuff: rumors and bits and pieces of fights and so on, but if put together may point to some other interesting people and events.

Bruce Nichols