Anita,

Excellent! You certainly know Morgan County history.

Here is my summation of killings in or near Syracuse as part of guerrilla warfare. Please bear in mind this does not include deaths resulting from regular military operations such as Shelby's raid in October 1863 and Price's raid in October 1864.

Before we get down to specifics, I preface by saying Confederate recruiters working the large southern populations north of the Missouri River in NE MO generally brought their recruits south heading for the Confederate army in Arkansas every autumn of 1862, 1863, and 1864. Since Union authorities were careful to protect the Pacific Railroad at all times, these recruiting bands encountered their first great obstacle (after that of crossing the Missouri River) trying to infiltrate past these Union troops near the railroad in Cooper, Morgan, and Moniteau Counties. Several of the small unit actions near Syracuse described below happened when the southern recruiters got close to the railroad.

For the below I include citations of the sources I used and names of the dead where I have them:

1. 11 August 1862. Five southern sympathizers enrolled as all able-bodied Missouri men were required to do by Union Dept. of the Missouri General Orders Number 19. These five men enrolled at LaMine in northwest Cooper County, and while walking back home near Syracuse were fired upon by several stragglers of a squad of Captain Elias Slocum's Company H, 7th Cavalry Missouri State Militia (MSM). Three of the five walking men died--a Graves, an elder Ellis, and a younger Ellis. These men evidently lived in the area not far from Syracuse or they wouldn't have walked on this errand. (Sources: newspaper microfilm St. Louis "Daily MO Republican" of 13 August 1862; and State of MO, "Report of the MO Adjutant General for 1865" published in 1866, page 496.).

2. 14 October 1862. A Union cavalry patrol of 1st Cavalry MSM collided with a large body of Rebel recruits heading south near Syracuse. No casualties are mentioned in this Union account, but both sides could have suffered dead and wounded in this skirmish. There was a body of Confederate recruits from Boone and Randolph Counties led by Colonel Caleb Perkins of Randolph County riding through this region at this time that skirmished with other Union patrols, so this was probably the same group. (Source: Frederick Dyer's "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion," vol. 2, page 805.)

3. 21 February 1863. Unidentified Union troops stationed at Syracuse attacked and killed four men who recently moved there from Vernon County in SW MO. On this Saturday, the four men--three Ashcraft brothers and a Mr. Box who was nearly blind--rode into Syracuse to have their military passes renewed, and some Union soldiers followed them out of town and shot them to death on Dr. Shortridge's farm. Their bodies were discovered on Sunday and they were buried on Monday. The Union troops MAY have been part of the local Morgan and Moniteau County 43rd Enrolled Missouri Militia, and probably suspected the four as being southern sympathizers. (Sources: "Startling Outrage," "Weekly California News," California, Moniteau County, 28 February 1863; and James F. Thoma, "This Cruel Unnatural War" (a history of Cooper County in the Civil War), Kingsport, Tennessee: published by author, 2003, page 70).

4. 27 August 1863. Unidentified Union troops said to be cavalry of Missouri State Militia (MSM) tracking Rebel recruiters in south Cooper County captured there Rebel Captain Aurelius C. Samuel of Randolph County whom they "murdered near Syracuse, Morgan County, Missouri." Confederate authorities earlier sent Captain Samuels back to his home region to recruit, so he was caught either going to or leaving Randolph County when he was captured and killed. The local militiamen of Cooper County's 52nd Enrolled Missouri Militia several times during the war were known to "shoot first and ask questions later," so it is possible this was such a time. (Source: Neil Block, "Shades of Gray: Confederate Soldiers and Veterans of Randolph County, Missouri, published 1996 by Two Trails in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, page 81.).

5. 29 August 1863. Unknown Union troops, but probably Cooper County's 52nd EMM, looking for a passing band of Rebels in the area attacked the Koontz farm in south Cooper County near Syracuse, and Union Lieutenant Ware was severely wounded. I think this is First Lieutenant Samuel Wear of Company B, 52nd EMM from Otterville, southwest Cooper County. The Union report said Mr. Koontz sheltered a small band of passing Rebels at his farmhouse. I believe this is related to the capture of Captain Samuels related above, who the Union report of this action does not name, but that report is vague as to details. What I think happened is that the militiamen surrounded the Koontz farmhouse, but left when the lieutenant was wounded, came back later and captured Captain Samuels and brothers Joseph and Charles Koontz who they took away toward Syracuse but murdered when out of sight. The Union report says the Union soldiers seized property at Koontz farm, but were made by higher authority to return it to the head of the Koontz household. (Source: United States Dept. of War, "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion" series 1, vol. 53, page 578).

6. 5 October 1863. Captain R. M. Box and a patrol of 30 troopers of his Company H, 7th Cav MSM tracked and repeatedly attacked a body of 61 Confederate recruits led by a Colonel Eades and Lieutenant Colonel Wilhite, said to be from Cooper County. Captain Box and his large patrol first attacked the Rebel riders in the brush near Syracuse at 2pm, whereupon the Rebels retreated and repeatedly formed a defensive battle line that Box' patrol attacked in turn. Upon Box' third attack of the Rebel group in a ravine, the defenders broke and scattered, whereupon the Federals tracked them as individuals and small groups until dark. The Federal suffered two men wounded compared to 12 known Rebel dead including Colonel Eades, and a number of Rebel wounded. Box' patrol also captured a large Confederate flag, new boots, Rebel uniforms, gray cloth to make more uniforms, four horses, and a young boy slave owned by LTC Wilhite. Such uneven battle results were typical when veteran Union cavalry attacked Rebel recruits, even when the southern group outnumbered the northern troops. (Sources: "Official Records" series 1, vol. 22, part 1, pages 686-8; "Skirmish With Guerrillas," St. Louis "Daily MO Republican," 21 October 1863, Ford's 1936 history of Moniteau County, page 45, and others.).

7. 8 October 1864. George Todd with 107 guerrillas raided Syracuse for a couple of hours on this date killing a number of men and burning the railroad depot, other railroad property, and the fire spread to two nearby homes burning them to the ground. Price's raiding army was in the area, so the available Union forces were concentrating on him, and Todd's group had Syracuse to themselves without interruption. Todd lined up all the men in town and forced a Mr. Grove to point out to him in the line the more radical Union men. The men Grove identified the guerrillas executed right there, a resident then told Todd that one or two of the murdered men were conservative and not radical Union men, whereupon Todd had Grove shot. Two of the killed were from Sedalia, so perhaps Grove pointed them out in order to try to save the lives of some of the Syracuse men. Besides Grove, the dead include a Yant from Pettis County, G. W. Shackelford of Syracuse, Smith from Pettis County, Pete Hays from the Syracuse area, and a Palmer. (Sources: Lots of 'em, the better ones including "Official Records" series 1, vol. 41, part 3, pages 714, 735, 741; the 1889 Morgan County history; John N. Edwards "Noted Guerrillas," 1877, page 313 [contains some untruths about the guerrillas killing the Union garrison, and some such]; period newspapers Columbia "Missouri Statesman," 4 Nov 1864 and St. Louis "Daily MO Democrat" of 1 Nov 1864; Frizzell, "Killed By Rebels," "Missouri Historical Review" of July 1977, pages 384-5, and others.).

That's it. I have no idea where all these dead from these various actions were buried, but it seems reasonable that many were taken to Syracuse as the nearest town. As you suggested, the families of many of the Syracuse area dead men probably took their bodies to other cemeteries of their own choosing.

Bruce Nichols