Forum,

I would like to nail down who purchased and moved the gunpowder to Jefferson City in early 1861, and also who in late May or early June moved the same gunpowder out of Jeff City to be hidden across the state.

Sometime in early 1861 some elements of the southern Missouri State Guard (MSG) led by Captain Joseph Kelly purchased in St. Louis a large quantity of gunpowder and transported it by river steamer to Jefferson City.

Sources for Captain Joseph Kelly's role in acquiring and bringing the gunpowder to Jefferson City include James E. McGhee in his 2000 book , Oak Hills Publishing book "Service with the Missouri State Guard: The Memoir of General James Harding," as Jim McGhee himself reminded us in this forum several years ago. The movement of the powder to Jefferson City is also mentioned in the 1881 History of Saline County, and in Michael E. Banasik's 1998 Camp Pope Bookshop book "Missouri Brothers in Gray: The Reminiscences and Letters of William J. Bull and John P. Bull," and evidently some other sources.

I am not sure which Captain Kelly was involved, although Jim McGhee seems sure it was Captain Joseph Kelly. Would somebody please tell me more about the military service record of the Captain Kelly who brought the gunpowder to Jefferson City in early 1861? Was this Captain Joseph Kelly of the Washington Guards, or somebody else? Whichever Captain Kelly brought the powder to Jeff City, what else did he do in the war?

A number of sources also tell how the MSG transported the gunpowder out of Jefferson City in June 1861 by boat and wagon before the arrival of Union forces and entrusted it to southerners across a large portion of Missouri to hide until the MSG would need it. This is mentioned in such sources as the histories of Saline County, Carroll County, Miller County, Greene County, Marion County, and also in Ai Edgar Asbury's autobiographical 1894 "My Experiences in the War, 1861-1865." Did the same Captain Kelly handle this movement of the powder out of Jeff City, too, and what source tells you that, please? If not, who managed the movement of the powder OUT of Jeff City?

I have seen much documentation about the purchase of the gunpowder and its movement to Jefferson City, and also its movement out of Jeff City, but I'm uncertain who was in charge of both events.

Thanks, Bruce Nichols