The Missouri State Archives online cards provided by United Daughters of the Confederacy to the state historical society on Captain John H. McNeill show he moved to Daviess County in 1855 and according to the "Gallatin Democrat" of 19 May 1904 died in southern service in the Shenandoah Valley on 11 November 1864. I assume you already have this information about the father, right?

Therefore, I assume we should be looking for son William S. McNeill in Daviess County also and probably somewhere in or near Gallatin. Is that also your understanding?

There is a Missouri State Archives card for William S. McNeill from the same source stating he is the son of John H. McNeill and that William served 8 months in his father's southern Missouri State Guard company probably during 1861 and very early 1861. This was also mentioned in the Gallatin newspaper article cited above. I also assume you have this information already, correct?

I say all this to say that this surname is very difficult to research because both northern and southern militaries mangled this surname in every spelling imaginable. I just wanted to check what facts you have before I go further, because the information below seems to indicate William switched sides later in the war.

Already, I found a record for Private William S. McNeall ("or McNeil" as the card hints) in Company B of the Union 4th Provisional Regiment of Enrolled Missouri Militia who enrolled in Gallatin 30 April 1864 under Captain Woodruff, was ordered into active duty as of 23 July 1864 at Breckinridge by EMM General Craig. The card also says William was detailed into the 4th Prov EMM by Captain Woodruff from his original unit, the 33rd Regiment EMM. The remarks section on the bottom says William was "in active service to March 11, 1865, date of last roll on file." Since 12 March 1865 is the day the EMM apparatus as a whole was dismantled, I assume William was a member of the 33rd until it was disbanded.

(The 4th Prov EMM was--as I understand it---inactivated in the fall of 1863 and its members reverted to their original EMM units, but Union local authorities actually continued to consider the 4th as still functional, although higher authority ordered all the eleven or so Prov. EMM regiments disbanded in the fall of 1863. Very confusing.)

William's activation on 23 July 1864 was to fight against Confederate LTC John C. Thornton's ill-timed insurgency screened by the guerrilla bands of Captain John Thrailkill and Charles Fletcher "Fletch" Taylor (formerly of Quantrill's band) that cranked up in the Platte County area about 7 July and took to the road in mobile warfare across about eight counties of northwest MO north of the Missouri River for much of July.

I also estimate that William's call-up to Breckinridge indicated he was folded into Major Samuel P. Cox of Daviess County' amalgamated guerrilla hunter unit drawn from a number of various EMM units of that region, since Cox organized his amalgamated unit starting about 20 July at Breckinridge on the St. Joseph and Hannibal Railroad in northeast Caldwell County. Probably, Private William S. McNeall was too late to take part in Major Cox' victory over Thrailkill's band at Union Mills near the northeast corner of Platte County on 22 July, but perhaps McNeall's active duty entry date was entered afterwards, so he may have been there after all. Immediately after this victory Cox disbanded his impromptu unit so the men could return to their farms and bring in their harvest, and Federal authorities used other Union troops to combat Thornton's force of several hundred. Incidently, Thornton by late July broke his large command into parts and directed them to disperse and hide across Clay and Ray Counties and eventually infiltrated the parts south of the Missouri River and on south to Confederate forces in Arkansas in groups of from 50 to 150 riders. Evidently, a goodly number of these men actually made it, but nobody can do more than estimate the southern losses from the insurgency.

However, it is possible that William McNeall was brought back into Cox' amalgamated unit of about 150 riders mostly of the 33rd and 51st EMM in late October when the major reformed it in time to attack Bill Anderson's large guerrilla band near Albany in southwest Clay County on 27 October that resulted in Bill Anderson's death and the deaths of several other bushwhackers. The accomplishments of Major Cox' amazing "kitbashed" unit is even more remarkable when you consider they were mostly armed with single-shot, muzzle-loading Union issue rifle-muskets and they sought after and fought better armed and mounted veteran guerrillas. EMM were simply not supposed to do that.

Charles, I have no proof that McNeall actually rode with Major Cox, but Cox assembled his force in July at Breckinridge and the 33rd EMM formed a large part of his guerrilla hunter outfit both in July and again in late October.

Sorry I took so long to reply, but I'm strugging with the final mechanics of getting the manuscript ready to ship. If you haven't guessed, all this stuff about LTC Thornton and Major Cox is in the manuscript inside Chapters 18 and 27.

Bruce