I have the article from America's Civil War on interlibrary loan. I appreciate your specifics as to its location in the volume when it comes. I have spent the day reading up on Denver and Auraria saloons and saloon keepers. The book "The City and the Saloon, Denver 1858-1916" by Thomas J. Noel, gives real context to Hiffer (Hefner) and Reed's (Rice?) establishment among the many. (Google Books) In the meantime I find this man John Laffayette Hefner in Hunt, Texas. Fits the dates but may mean nothing. He is in the Texas Census for 1850 and 1880 and is married there in 1867.

Your reference to the secret organizations supporting the Southern cause has also been on my mind. Except for the most general references I can not find a lead as to Pueblo County activity.

From the Union side I am trying to track down a dispatch for a detachment to pursue Southern recruits. Supposedly they were from a Fort Garland unit. Do you know any links to find records of day to day field operations or diaries of men at Fort Garland?

Finally, the printed list of those southern recruits that were captured along with Captain Mckee and whose names were printed in the paper. Has any genealogical search been done on each of these men and narratives that may have been left behind?

Jim