Bryan,

Regarding that skirmish on 1 August 1864 that supposedly took place in Rolla, you probably need to take that with a grain of salt. Actions were hot and frequent during the late summer of 1864, and some areas had so much going on that good record keeping fell behind.
I have no additional information about that 1 August 1864 action involving the 5th Cavalry MSM, but there is a possibility that Frederick Dyer during the 1880s, who listed that indistinct action in his "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion," only knew that parts of the 5th were stationed at Rolla, and had no detail about where the skirmish actually took place. Perhaps the Union military records didn't record it. Dyer probably figured this skirmish happened somewhere in the Phelps County area, took a "SWAG," and plopped down "Rolla" with no better information to locate the fight. Don't get me wrong, Dyer did a nice job of filling in the information gaps, but if the information wasn't there, what could he do? I found a large number of similar cases where he used the Union garrison location because the precise location was not recorded The actual incident could have occurred 20 miles from Rolla or right in the town limits. Who knows?

I hope that helps,
Bruce Nichols