Missouri Cavalry at the Battle of New Market?

JeffBrooks

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Location
Hutto, TX
I have seen in more than one source that a company of dismounted troopers from the 1st Missouri Cavalry Regiment formed part of Breckinridge's army at the Battle of New Market in May of 1864.

Is this correct? They seem an awfully long way from home. How on earth did they find themselves there?
 
Yes, Capt. Charles H. Woodson's Company. If I remember correctly, they were men from the 1st Missouri Brigade who were captured in the Corinth and Vicksburg campaigns (before the siege) and were paroled and exchanged in Richmond, therefore leaving them stuck in the East. They were formed into a single and independent company from there.
 
Yes, Capt. Charles H. Woodson's Company. If I remember correctly, they were men from the 1st Missouri Brigade who were captured in the Corinth and Vicksburg campaigns (before the siege) and were paroled and exchanged in Richmond, therefore leaving them stuck in the East. They were formed into a single and independent company from there.

Imagine the stories they had to tell.
 
Imagine the stories they had to tell.
Makes me wonder what the Virginians thought when they arrived....

According to this source, Woodson along with another officer, Edward H. Scott, had actually asked and received permission from the authorities in Richmond to organized their Missouri company. So they weren't necessarily stranded in the East, but were about 70 men willing to stay and fight there. Also, apparently they weren't all from the 1st Missouri Brigade, as Woodson himself had been captured in Missouri, possibly while fighting as a guerrilla.
 
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