Blogs and Blue Coats

I was doing some research on the August, 1863 capture of General M. Jeff Thompson while he was at Pocahontas and stumbled upon a blog operated by a local guest house.

This particular post focuses on Confederate officers Reeves and Carter and states:

"This episode of Pocahontas and the Civil War tells of a fascinating deception by which southern sympathizers tricked men in southern Missouri into entering the war on the side of the south, just as men used to “Shanghai” sailors, using force, liquor or drugs to fill ships’ crews by unscrupulous means"

The basis for the belief of the blog post is a letter sent to General Davidson in Pilot Knob , Missouri from Lt. Colonel Theo Harmann who was commander at Fort Barnesville.

The Confederate government passed a conscription act on April 30th, 1862. The United States conscription act was not passed until March 3, 1863.  The fact that Reeves' and Carter's men were wearing Union jackets was most likely done not to trick citizens into think they were being conscripted into the Union army but done so in order to slip more easily through occupied or contested areas. In fact, Bruce Nichols, in his book "Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri Vol. 1" (also published on the law.missouri.edu website) states:

"So many guerrillas and Confederate troops were wearing captured Union uniforms in the region that General Merrill issued an order that all newly formed Enrolled Missouri Militia while on active duty were to wear broad white hat bands to simplify recognition by other northern troops. "