This is a pretty good mystery. Colonel Hampton Perry Johnson, a minister from Leavenworth, did recruit two companies of cavalry from Mercer County, Missouri, in 1861 for the 5th Kansas Cavalry. The 5th Kansas was severely undermanned at the time and was competing with Colonel Jennison's 1st Kansas Cavalry (later the 7th Kansas Cavalry), companies of the 3rd Kansas Volunteers and companies of the 4th Kansas Volunteers. Kansas relied heavily on recruits from Unionists who fled Missouri in the wake of the Missouri State Guard, and sympathetic abolitionists from Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, even a small group from New Mexico territory.

You can help me with this in that I believe Mercer County is on the way between Leavenworth and Quincy, Illinois, where arms, clothing and military equipment was gathered during this time for Lane's Kansas Brigade. Colonel Johnson would have scoured this area for additional recruits. In a history of the 18th Missouri Infantry (also recruiting from Mercer County) one 5th Kansas company was enticed away from the 18th Missouri Infantry to the 5th Kansas Cavalry by Colonel Johnson.

Why the interest?

Howard Mann