My maternal grandmother, Cora (Wilson) Shoemaker, was the youngest, last, and only one born after the WBTS, of 12 children of Willis and Amanda (Mallot) Wilson. She was born in 1869 near Starfield, Clinton Co. MO. According to some family sources...not confirmed...Willis "went as a substitute" for a conscripted, younger relative for "...$500, Confederate!" He was supposedly "..shot in the knee at the Battle of Pea Ridge (AR)" and mustered out.

Pea Ridge occured (if memory serves)in December 1862. Was either Confederate (Richmond) or state (Missouri) "conscription in effect at that time? This might help in confirming whether he was, indeed, in as a "substitute" at that time.

One story has him as "riding with Quantrell" after his discharge. The family also supposedly had links, "...they was cousins to the Younger brothers..." with some of the more well known of Quantrell's "regiment." This was all family legend, unconfirmed, and told to me while visiting the area in the early 1950s. Obviously, all of those who were contemporaries of her generation...or even their children.. are now long gone so trying to sift through old stories is not an option and I'm having to try and dig through sparse records and sources.

Living with us in my childhood, I remember that she quickly corrected me when I came home from a grammar school history class talking about the "Civil War." She was adamant that it was called, "The War Between the States" and that her daddy had proudly served the south until wounded.

Since Quantrell's "Raiders" were sometimes considered an "irregular" force and probably even more informal in their rosters and record keeping than the Confederate Army in general is there any reliable source to search for names of his troops, either those who served "full-time" or those who might have occasionally "mustered in" for part time service?