Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, Volume I, 1862

This book is a thorough study of all known guerrilla operations in Civil War Missouri in 1862, the year such warfare became the primary type of military action there and the year that the state saw almost constant fighting.
An enormous variety of sources—military and government records, private accounts, county and other local histories, period and later newspapers, and secondary sources published after the war—are used to identify which Southern partisan leaders and groups operated in which areas of Missouri, and to describe how they operated and how their kinds of warfare evolved.
The actions of Southern guerrilla forces and Confederate behind-enemy-lines recruiters are presented chronologically by region so that readers may see the relationship of seemingly isolated events to other events over a period of time in a given area. The counter-actions of an array of different types of Union troops are also covered to show how differences in training, leadership, and experiences affected behaviors and actions in the field.

Bruce Nichols is an analyst for the United States Government in the Department of Defense. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Bruce Nichols
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 264
Bibliographic Info: 70 photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012 [2004]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6927-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9189-6
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

1. Winter 1862 in Northwest Missouri      7
2. Winter 1862 in Northeast Missouri      15
3. Winter 1862 in Southeast Missouri      23
4. Winter 1862 in Southwest Missouri      32
5. Why Guerrillas?      39
6. Operating Deep Behind Enemy Lines      46
7. Policy Evolves (March through May 1862)      60
8. Spring 1862 in Northeast Missouri      63
9. Spring 1862 in Southeast Missouri      69
10. Spring 1862 in Southwest Missouri      76
11. Spring 1862 in Northwest Missouri      86
12. The Enrolled Missouri Militia: Guerrillas’ Controversial New Enemy      103
13. Summer 1862 in Southwest Missouri      106
14. Summer 1862 in Southeast Missouri      116
15. Summer 1862 in Northeast Missouri      129
16. Summer 1862 in Northwest Missouri      143
17. Fall 1862 in Southeast Missouri      164
18. Fall 1862 in Southwest Missouri      175
19. Fall 1862 in Northeast Missouri      186
20. Fall 1862 in Northwest Missouri      199

Afterword      211
Notes      215
Bibliography      235
Index      243

“detailed, fast-paced, descriptive catalogue…colorful…fine, well-illustrated study”—Military Heritage; “a detailed study…includes both guerrilla raids and recruitment efforts along with descriptions of the Union efforts to thwart their activities…richly illustrated with period photographs, sketches, and maps”—Civil War Book Review; “Bruce Nichols gives us a welcome opportunity to probe more deeply into Missouri’s singular experience with this type of conflict in 1862”—The Civil War Courier; “Nichols’ impressive four volumes will undoubtedly be the standard encyclopedia of guerilla activities in Missouri for years to come. No historian interested in Civil War guerrilla warfare should be without the entire set. Nichols is to be congratulated for his excellent work in documenting this dark but pivotal time in Missouri’s history…highly recommended”—Civil War News; “monumental…nothing remotely approaching the scale of this undertaking has been attempted before on this topic, and these meticulously researched tomes will almost certainly stand the test of time as essential reference tools”—The Civil War Monitor; “no previous chronicler has undertaken what Nichols does here—a discussion of every known action in the state for a given year…Nichols makes every effort to tell the story in a balanced and thoughtful way for both Union and Confederate…a welcome and worthy addition to the field”—Civil War St. Louis.