I'm wondering about the individual companies historically assigned as having belonged to Jo Porter's "1st Northeast Missouri Cavalry Regiment." It seems there was not actually a regiment with that numerical designation at the time it existed, and that such a designation was arbitrarily assigned to it decades later by historians. If I'm wrong here, please sound out.

But going beyond that, in modern-day historiography specific lettered companies are denoted as having belonged to Porter's regiment. My question is were these company designations contemporary to the existence of Porter's regiment, or were they also a post-war artificial creation attempting to bring some semblance of order to Porter's recruit command? In essence, one thing I am asking here is are there archival documents or reports or muster rolls dating to 1862 referring a Company A or a Company E or a Company M of Porter's command?

The reason I ask is that I am finding evidence "Company L, 1st Northeast Missouri Cavalry" never seems to have been designated as such during it's existence. This small unit command in fact seems to have been an independent company, and there is even some evidence it may have even been formed pursuant to the April 1862 Partisan Ranger Act as opposed to the CSA legislation geared towards creating more traditional volunteer companies and regiments.

So...can anybody provide insight into the company lettering schematic of Porter's recruit command from 1862, or are these A thru M company designations a postwar confabulation existing on the same plain as the "1st N.E. Cavalry Regiment"?