The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: 6th or "Southwest" MO Cav. CSA

So far as I can tell you the 6th Mo. lost very few men at Praire Grove. The 12th Mo. lost two men wounded and the 5th Mo. lost not much more. I have my roster of the 12th in front of me and that is confirmed. I don't have the 6th On hand at the moment.

Some years ago I completed a manuscript of the First Raid which I titled Missouri Raid the Battles of Springfield and Hartville. What I felt was missed by previous authors was the humanistic side of events, both on the Union and Confederate side of things. There were a great deal of dynamic action going on at the time. I completed the manuscript but was unsatisfied with it because I sensed that something was amiss, especially at Hartville, and we didn't have the whole story about what happend between Burch's Battalion and Gregg's men at Springfield. Examining the CSR's and returns for both sides shed some new light on just about everything. For many die hards who place a high regard on the conduct of Shelby's Brigade I knew that this was a sensetive area. However, the documents speak for themselves. After the raid the 6th Missouri simply had to be rebuilt and it then became the 11th Mo. which actually did not take place until the fall of '63'. We have never had full documentation to these facts but when you examine how many men had been lost to desertion and disease during the first raid and then add the high casualties to the leadership, a rebuilding had to be done. Colonel Jeans was court martialed but decided to resign. His conduct was not the best. Finally, the raid just didn't end with Hartville, the union forces continued right into chasing Marmaduke even into Batesville. That ended the raid. One point that sticks out in my mind was that there was indeed a high level of leadership displayed during the raid, but at the same time both Marmduke and Shelby had problems that have never been addressed and frankly they went out of their way to hide through the help of Edwards by his romantic and off beat manner of writing reports. But on that point for morale purposes I would have done the same thing were I in their shoes.

As a combat veteran I have found that the rules of individual combat has never changed. You are either gripped by fear with your leaders pushing you or you have tunnel vision and see only that which is happening to you. Then there are those very few who simply see all that is going on and can be calm throughout the whole business. They are truly rare. I think we see examples of that displayed often by Shelby and Marmaduke along with many of their key leaders. The odds catches up to these men eventually.

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6th or "Southwest" MO Cav. CSA
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