Thank you for your thoughts. I have sifted them. Made note of them. Indeed, the person who led the clandestine effort at Maces Hole may have been a person of means who funded the operation and Colonel Heffner may have been an alias. I have come to think however that it is more likely that the "Colonel" was one in name only, like Colonel Sanders. It is my feeling that Heffner, Heffiner or Hiffer was a pardner in a saloon in Aurora, Colorado or Auraria as it was also known. This came to me while weighing through accounts of the war and I came across reference to the book . . . America's Civil War, Volumes 4-5 Empire Press, 1991. It said " Colonel" of the regiment was probably J.L. Heffner of Auraria, Colorado. Heffner was a business associate of Robert J. Reed, one of the men arrested with McKee on September 29, 1861, on a charge of recruiting Confederates."

I checked this out and sure enough, J.L. Heffner (sometimes Hiffer and Heffiner) was in business in Aurora with Reed running a saloon that boasted it had the finest line of whisky. Beyond this though, J.L. Heffner was also the treasurer of the gold field operations of the Denver area. If he didn't have gold, he knew who did. Right now I thinking I not only have found the Colonel but a real point of confederate contact in Denver, the Reed and Heffner Saloon. The last I was able to tract Heffner, he was living in, I believe, Hunt, Texas.

This is all, MOST intriguing. I appreciate you thinking this through with me. I live in "Maces Hole" (Beulah) and spend time trying to imagine where in the valley they camped. No atifacts have been unearthed to the best of anyone's knowledge. . .and am also a Kentucky Colonel.

Jim Campbell