Fremont Rangers from Perry County
Archibald Little Hager Diary:
August, 1861 –
On the 5th 118 soldiers started from Conrad’s Mill to the Cape.
On the 10th was the first muster at McAtee’s spring and there were 28 that joined it.
On the 19th A. L. Hager left home to go to the Cape and got there on the 21st and was sworn into the State’s service.
Missouri Digital Heritage – Soldiers’ Records: War of 1812 – World War I:
On August 8, 1861 Captain Michael S. Eddlemon, Private Archibald Hager, and many other men from Perry County enlisted and were mustered into Company E of the Fremont Rangers Home Guards.
On August 12, 1861 another group of men from Perry County enlisted and were mustered in to the same company.

HOME GUARD, County Origins of Specified Units by Kirby Ross:
Cape Girardeau County –
Fremont Rangers Independent Battalion Lt. Col. Lindsay Murdock 3 companies ??-Dec. 10 8 KIA/1 DOW/2 MIA

History of Southeast Missouri, Robert Sidney Douglass, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1912:
"In August, 1861, Gen. Fremont gave Lindsay Murdoch of Bollinger County, a commission as lieutenant colonel, with orders to recruit a battalion for the defense of Cape Girardeau. With the assistance of Maj. (Daniel) Abbey he raised four companies which were known as the Fremont Rangers. They were recruited mainly in Bollinger, Scott and Cape Girardeau counties, and were commanded by Capts. J.T. Burk, William P. Harris and Michael S. Eddlemon. From Aug. 4 to Dec. 25, 1861, the Rangers served without pay or clothing, and did nearly all the scouting in Southeast Missouri."
BATTLE OF CAPE GIRARDEAU FOUGHT 140 YEARS AGO TODAY – https://www.capecounty.us/prosecutingattorney/battleofcapegirardeau.aspx:
“With the fall of Fort Sumter on April 13, 1861, the people of Cape Girardeau were forced to pick sides. Some joined the north, like Lt. Col. Lindsay Murdoch, who fled to Cape Girardeau from Bollinger County and raised four companies called the Fremont Rangers.”
Commentary:
The Missouri Digital Heritage – Soldiers’ Records: War of 1812 – World War I lists 333 soldiers in Companies A, B, & E of Fremont Rangers – Home Guards. There appears to be several duplicate names listed so the actual number is a little less than that. I have not done a complete analysis of the soldiers listed, but it appears that a majority of those in Company E were from Perry County. Many can be positively identified in the 1860 United States Federal Census including Michael S. Eddlemon who was a Merchant in the Conrad’s Mill area.
If Archibald Hager’s number of recruits is accurate, nearly one-half of the soldiers of the Fremont Rangers gathered in south-central Perry County before they traveled to Cape Girardeau to enlist in the Home Guards. Murdoch may have traveled to Perry County to participate in the recruitment. Conrad’s Mill and Cape Girardeau are both around thirty miles from Murdoch’s home in Dallas (now Marble Hill).