Company E 2nd Missouri Cavalry

Bob Schmidt
© 2002/2003-04

to order, please send $29.95 plus $3 shipping and handling to:

Bob Schmidt
5984 Hwy Y
French Village, MO 63036

Also for sale at Odile’s Linen and Lace and the Interpretive Center in Ste. Genevieve

Preface to the book:

Accepting a challenge made in 1999 for a book on Missouri Confederates, I have chosen Co. E 2nd Missouri Cavalry.  Composed primarily of men from Southeast Missouri who served in the Missouri State Guard, Co. E saw service in a theater of the War perhaps unfamiliar to their descendants.

My portrayal of the story of Co. E is best described as being of three segments.  First, biographic profiles on each soldier, their background and lives after the War are researched as complete as possible.  The intent is to honor those men, their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and wives, as well as make it possible for descendants to trace their heritage to the Co. E soldier.

Secondly, the soldier’s wartime career is researched from service records, letters home, family histories, stories handed down, etc.  Summaries of most encounters have been included especially the Battle of Big River Bridge and Fort Pillow, both of which intrigued me.  Added research was done on the Capture of the Maple Leaf as told in the profile on Frank Smith; the service of William Moss Pipkin aboard the CSS Gunboat Arkansas; the execution of William Livingston; the profile on Ernest Meysenberg, whose brother was an officer in the Union Army and data gathered on Thomas Boas who was a prisoner on Ship Island at the end of the War.

Finally, wartime conditions as they are reported to have existed in Southeast Missouri – from the very homes of those in Co. E – is included where practical.  The daily lives of the families of the soldiers in Co. E, left in Southeast Missouri, saw indiscriminate killings, hangings and other terror, mostly from Union controlled forces whose aims were not then, nor are they now, generally understood.  This collateral research recounts wartime events including Union outrages as remembered by Philip Pipkin; the execution of John F. Abshire; the killing of James Richmond Cochran near Couzen’s Mill; the killing of Addison Cunningham and Buck Perkins; General Order No. 3 for assessments on Confederate sympathizers; General Order No. 7 outlining banishments of those loyal to the Confederacy and General Order No. 8 to rearm civilians in the hunt for guerrillas and bushwhackers.  The terror did not end with the surrender, as told by Lt. Alexander Chadwell on his planned trip home.

In conclusion, I believe most descendants and those interested in the military history of the unit will agree that this book is a start.  So much more is possible and I regret that I have not been able to adequately research all the soldiers.  Unearthing family data on Thomas Boas, Zachariah Jennings, Henri Pernot and Thomas J. Haile was especially gratifying.  The passage of time has rendered many veteran’s stories to become lost, though I am convinced that the information is hidden away just waiting to be discovered.

Through a comfortable mix of military and genealogy history, a better image of our war,. the American Civil War, will emerge as seen through these veteran’s lives.

Bob Schmidt

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