I acquired an original Remington New Army .44 that was owned by Alvin K. Stoddard, Co. C 1st Cav of Iowa. With the pistol, I was also given a mangled chunk of lead that is reported to have been pulled from his arm from an ambush in Missouri. They were ambushed May 27 1862 by 20 or so Guerilla fighters (Bushwackers). Doing some research, I have found a newspaper article and other documents that detail the ambush at Monagan Springs, near Osceola Missouri on May 27 1862. The articles list the names of the foraging party that were present. The detailed description of the skirmish was written by William A. Clark.

William A. Clark - 3rd Sergeant at the time, later promoted to 2nd Lietenant. His horse was killed, though he was not wounded. A ball struck a comb in his jacket and deflected with a graze to his skin.

William G. Harbach - Company Quartermaster, Killed by Guerillas while sitting in wagon.

Josiah Cameron - Wounded in leg, amputatd above knee. Died next day.

Michael Higgins - Sitting on horse, wounded. Died next day.

Alvin (Allen) K. Stoddard - Wounded in Arm.

I have exhausted my research abilities. Does anyone have any suggestions or the ability to find pics of any of these men? Perhaps pics of Monagan Springs? Any other information to add?

I have reached out to some relatives I have found still living in the Shenandoah, Iowa area. I'm curious if they're interested in reacquiring this pistol, or if they know how it ended up in a pawn shop. Thus far I have not heard back from them.

I Googled Iowa Historical Society and came up with several possibilities, including info on the GAR -- Grand Army of the Republic -- essentially the Veteran's group for the Union Army. Have you tried that?

Those would be "Bushwhackers", not "Jayhawkers" that did the ambushing...

I'm away from my border wars references, but I'll see what I can find when I get back to them. The 1st IA Cav was a fairly active unit from what I recall.

quote:

Originally posted by mesabi:
Those would be "Bushwhackers", not "Jayhawkers" that did the ambushing...

I'm away from my border wars references, but I'll see what I can find when I get back to them. The 1st IA Cav was a fairly active unit from what I recall.

Yes, good catch. My mistake. My head is spinning as I try to keep all of this info straight. Jayhawkers just stuck b/c I'm originally from Kansas

Try Fold 3. But you have to sign up for it.

My son has a book titled All the battles fought in Missouri during the Civil War. He is 100 miles away or I would look it up for you. Maybe it is online. Side note. Missouri had the second largest number of battles fought, Virginia was first.

Great help, gents. I explored fold3 and found several documents bearing his name. Muster rolls, civil war pension docs, and registration for the Invalid Reserve Corp. Neat stuff.

A history of the First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers : from its organization in 1861 to its muster out of the United States service in 1866 : also, a complete roster of the regiment

I think you can read or download a pdf for free here:
https://pladonorl.firebaseapp....throp-0548558825.pdf

Also available at Amazon, and the Library of Congress.

quote:

Originally posted by Uppster:
My son has a book titled All the battles fought in Missouri during the Civil War. He is 100 miles away or I would look it up for you. Maybe it is online. Side note. Missouri had the second largest number of battles fought, Virginia was first.

Battles --Missouri had battles ?? Ya mean like 1st.(& 2nd.) Manassas, The Seven Days Battles, Cold Harbor or Chancellorsville!! Anything remotely comparable to T.J. Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaigns? How about the Wilderness or Spotsylvania Court House?

I'll make it easy -- name one "battle" fought in Missouri that would be generally as well remembered as Bentonville, NC (where Joe Johnston made the South's last tactical offensive (the Confederacy's "last hurrah")?

I understand that Missouri was a border (split) state; a hodgepodge of Northern and Southern sympathizers. Fighting (guerrilla warfare) was particularly bloody in the border states. I'll grant here must have thousands of skirmishes and large scale bushwhackings, but very few clashes that could be properly called battles.

Since 1901 we North Carolinian's like to say we were "First at Bethel, Farthest across the field at Chickamauga and Gettysburg and Last at Appomattox". However, Big Bethel wasn't much of what I'd term a battle (less than 5K engaged, 19 killed and 60 wounded).

WOW....pillboxesghost...take it easy or the next North South Skirmish Association you will be challenged to a duel at 50 feet with pistols.

We are lucky in VA to have the Virginia Regimental Histories Series by H.E. Howard on most of the Infantry, Calvary and battles fought. Each book was usually by a different author with some better than others. The prices usually ranged from $15 to $20 and were found in some of the local book stores.

The Virginia Regimental Histories Series deals with each Virginia unit and Virginia soldier of the American Civil War. Individual volumes contain a unit history, an annotated muster roll of every man who served in that unit and relevant photographs and maps. The first edition of each volume was limited to one thousand hardback copies which were numbered and autographed by the author.

The Virginia Regimental Histories Series had as its goal the preservation of all material related to Virginia units and Virginia soldiers of the American Civil War.

They were interesting reading if you liked the Civil War and were collectible with most of the titles out of print. Here is a list of the series:

http://bainesbooks.com/varegsrs.php

There is also an organization to preserve the NC history of the Civil War units:

http://northcarolinahistory.or...FEAAYASAAEgL96vD_BwE

You might try contacting Ken Burns' film company. They may well have research on that skirmish in their archives that didn't make the cut for the documentary.

Best place for pictures would be to research his family tree and attempt to contact living relatives. Hopefully they return your call.