Hello,

I’ve frequently read various posts on here but I’ve never made an account until now. I put this off for too long, and now some of those on here with which I had hoped to become acquainted have unfortunately passed away. Anyways, I have a passion for local history and genealogy but have a hard time committing too much money on some of the resources. I have a question about my third great grandfather, John Potter, of Reynolds County MO. I have a decent understanding of his timeline during the war. His residence was on Webb Creek in southern Reynolds County. He enlisted at age 33 as a private on August 6, 1862 in Alton, Oregon County. He was mustered on the 21st of that same month and assigned to Captain John Casey’s company, Greene’s regiment volunteers, which became company C of the 3rd Missouri Cavalry (confederate). He supplied his own horse and equipment. He served for over a year before being captured on October 25, 1863 in his home county (perhaps on leave?) and was received at Gratiot Street Prison on January 5, 1864. He was in the prison’s hospital from March 6-15, and was discharged on oath and $1000 bond on May 28, 1864.

Here’s my question. An older relative of mine that does genealogy sent me a clip of a report from Captain William T. Leeper to General Clinton B. Fisk that reads: “Gen, I think you will have two men up in a few days named respectfully, John Potter and Philip Odell of Reynolds Co, MO. They have both taken the oath and went and joined the southern army since and will not do atall. I am very much....” and the picture is cut off. I would very much be interested to read the rest of the applicable correspondence, but I do not know where to find it and do not wish to pay any subscription fees. It also doesn’t show a date, and I would like to know exactly when this was written to get more of an idea on the timeline of his capture and how long he may have spent at Pilot Knob. Also some confusion about his capture exists because his neighbor Esau Huett who also served later recalled that John was captured at Pulliam’s Farm in Ripley County on Christmas Day 1863, but I think his memory was a bit off judging by prison records.

Also, John is listed on the document “confederate soldiers of Price’s raid” which occurred a few months after his release from prison. This could be an error if it just lists complete unit rosters, but I also know that several Reynolds County and surrounding area men either left their original units (or some other circumstance I don’t know) and formed a unit called Clardy’s Battalion. I’ve never seen any reference to John being a member of Clardy’s but several of his area neighbors from the 3rd Cavalry appear in Clardy’s roster. I’ve also heard the list of men in Clardy’s is incomplete in the books detailing missouri units, but also I don’t know how likely it would be for John to break his oath and fight in a major battle where he was liable to be captured. I tend to think his leaving his wife and participating in the war was somewhat reluctant so when he got his chance to return to some level of peace on his farm he would have. But I guess I’ll never know, no family stories were ever passed down.

Thanks for any help,

Nick