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Subject: [MO-CW] Re: B.F. Dobyns of Columbus, MO
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 15:13:52 EDT

Patrick,
You may recall that I worked on this problem without success some time
in the past. I'm glad Desoto Joe could come through for you.
First, and on the small scale, if I were a betting man, I would put
money that Benjamin's middle name is Franklin, since that was a prevalent
naming custom among southern men of his generation. That was the easy part.
Now for the hard part.
Second, I have my doubts that your Benjamin F. Dobyns served under
Shelby for any but a short period of time. I most certainly can be wrong on
this, but if your man is indeed the sergeant in the 4th MO Infantry, that
regiment's history did not place it under Shelby and not even with Shelby for
nearly all of it's existence. The bulk of Jo Shelby's men during 1861 came
from north and east Lafayette County and north and west Saline County. When
Shelby recruited those 1000 men in four days in mid August 1862 that became
the nucleus of his "Iron Brigade," they also came primarily from that same
region. Furthermore, by August 62 the 4th MO Inf was a fully functional unit
and SGT Dobyns was probably already in place there.
I cannot recall if I mentioned this to you in earlier exchanges, but I
found two or more men in that region with names very similar to your guy, and
one of those may be the one Edwards noted in "Shelby and His Men." Edwards
was pretty "windy" and could twist the truth really well, but he was there
with Shelby, and I have found his names in all of his works to be "bang on."
(Just don't believe his body counts of dead Yankees.) We can conclude from
this, if your Dobyns was not with the 4th MO Inf, then he very well could be
the man Edwards named. That doesn't really clear away much of the fog then,
does it?
Most of the recruiting in the Columbus area of north-central Johnson
County (close to the south-central Lafayette County line) during 1861 and
1862 was performed by Colonels John R. Graves and Benjamin Elliott of
Lafayette County and COL and Rev. Jeremiah Vardaman Cockrell of Warrensburg,
Johnson County (his brother was the more famous general Francis Cockrell).
Their recruits went into a variety of units, as I understand things. There
was not much successful recruiting in the Columbus area during the remainder
of the war, although Quantrill began his Lawrence raid from a farm near
Columbus in August 1863, as you probably know.
I don't know if I helped or not, and I know you have certainly tried
hard to do your homework on this issue over the past several years. You
deserve better, so I hope Desoto Joe's sergeant in the 4th MO Inf is your man.
Bruce Nichols

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