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Title: Diary of A.H. Lewis
Description: This diary, written between December 15, 1861 and March 19, 1862, records the experience of A.H. Lewis of Saline County, Missouri as a Confederate soldier and prisoner of war. Lewis’s company of Missouri State Guards was captured by Col. Davis in the Battle of Blackwater River on December 19, 1861. After being held for several weeks at the St. Louis military prison, the Confederate prisoners were moved to the penitentiary at Alton, Illinois. Although Lewis initially criticized prisoners who took an Oath of Loyalty to the Federal government to gain freedom, Lewis took the Oath himself on March 14, 1862 and was released.
Object Type: Diary
Date: December 15, 1861 - March 19, 1862

Title: From James Boyer to A. Comingo
Description: On December 22, 1863, James Boyer, Deputy Provost Marshal for Chariton County, Missouri, writes from Brunswick, Missouri, to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal for the 6th District of Missouri, in Lexington, Missouri. Boyer expresses concern that a number of deserters he arrested were exonerated after being delivered to the authorities at Macon City, Missouri. Boyer believes that the soldiers should have been found guilty of deserting, and declares, "there is no use in having a law if it is not lived up to."
Date: December 22, 1863

Title: Diary of C.T. Kimmel
Description: This is an excerpt from the diary of C.T. Kimmel, an assistant surgeon in the 2nd Missouri State Militia Cavalry. The entries, dated May 10 – June 2, 1865, describe Kimmel mustering out of service and returning home to Chariton County, Missouri. He mentions nearby guerrilla warfare, and writes about mourning the death of President Lincoln. Attached is an invitation to a New Year’s Union Ball on December 31, 1865 in Brunswick, Missouri.
Object Type: Diary
Date: May 10, 1865-December 30, 1865

Title: From James Boyer to A. Comingo
Description: On December 19 and 20, 1863, James Boyer, Deputy Provost Marshal for Chariton County, Missouri, writes from Brunswick, Missouri to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal for the 6th District of Missouri, in Lexington, Missouri. Boyer describes the evidence against four deserters he recently turned over to Department Headquarters: Charles G. Kuhn, Henry Lees, Frank Mortiz, and Daniel G. Bently. Boyer inquires why Henry Lees, whom he calls "a deserter of the worst kind on account of his using his best efforts to get others to desert," has been "parolled or furloughed to the limits of Macon City by the authorities there."
Date: December 19, 1863-December 20, 1863

Title: Release From Arrest
Description: This document exonerates ten men who were charged with conspiracy to assassinate military officers at a post in Brunswick, Missouri. The document is dated November 29, 1862 and is signed by Brig. Gen. Richard C. Vaughan at the 6th Military District Headquarters in Lexington, Missouri. Vaughan states, “I have examined all the testimony . . . there is no foundation in truth for the charge against them.”
Date: November 29, 1862

Title: From Thomas Fletcher to R.T. Van Horn
Description: This dispatch, dated October 20, 1866, is from Thomas Fletcher in Jefferson City, Missouri to Hon. R.T. Van Horn. Fletcher reports that his plans concerning troop movements within Missouri have changed. He had originally planned to send troops to Platte, Clay, Carroll, Ray, and Chariton counties, but is now occupied with political concerns: "The ablest men in the Conservative Party are detailed to the duty of getting up a disturbance between Genls Sherman[,] Hancock & myself, and it keeps me busy & watchful to prevent them making us trouble."
Date: October 20, 1866

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865