Thank you very much for the research work on the Ryders (or Riders). I am cool with George Rider and his son John W. Rider of Jackson County belonging in Quantrill's band for a while in the summer of 1862, and then in August 1862 joining the large Confederate recruiting group there before or after the Lone Jack battle and accompanying the other recruits heading south on the way to Arkansas and siging papers on the way around Henry County. I really doubt they signed papers in Clinton, as I believe a sizable part of 1st Iowa Cavalry was stationed there, if I remember my reading, but Clinton was the Henry County seat and the next larger town in the area. We know the large recruiting group went through a part of Henry County, because there are records of southern men joining parts of this recruiting command near Leeton and Holden in south Johnson County and around present-day Shawnee County in north-central Henry County before heading south. That's close enough for somebody later to write down "Clinton" for George and son John.
I can also believe George and son John going "over the hill" in December 1863. Lots of the Reb units got by with next to nothing in the Trans-Mississippi Department until winter made it all seem just more than a man could stand. I'm not excusing desertion, but I can understand it, especially in Missouri and Arkansas winter.
The "Vermont" part of Jim Ryder's draft record in 1863 caught me by surprise, even though I heard of Confederates from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Quantrill hailed from Ohio. I go with the 1850 census that the Saline County Ryder family originated from Kentucky and Tennessee, and I can live with Jim Ryder being born in MO, since I suppose his parents told that to the census taker when Jim was age 13. My guess on "Vermont" being on his draft record at Chillicothe, Livingston County, was Jim's way to defray suspicion away from his Saline County family. I also take that as Jim Ryder leaving a little "in your face" present for the Yankees at the same time he was protecting his parents and family. Remember, this guy was a nut for being secretive, if we can believe what his wife told the provost marshal's office.
Bruce Nichols