Description
Very nice Casey’s Infantry Tactics manual belonging to Captain Walter Buncher of the 77th Enrolled Missouri Militia. The E.M.M. is a seldom heard of unit. They were Missouri’s own emergency state army created haphazardly during the summer of 1862 when parts of Missouri were over run by southern guerrillas and Confederate recruiters. Member’s of the unit’s raised were meant to stay home and only be called into service when their hometown’s were threated. They were issued no uniforms and had to supply their own weapons. Many of the unit organizations were throne together haphazardly. Although there were regiments between the 1st and 89th in number, a few numbers in between failed to come to fruition. The 77th E.M.M. was active mostly in Jackson County, Mo. which furnished the nucleus of Quantrill’s guerrillas. The entire area near Independence and Kansas City was pro Confederate. In fact when Quantrill decided to attack and sack Lawrence, Kansas, he rendezvoused and gathered his troops on the Hudspeth farm which was located in eastern Jackson County, Missouri. Walter would enroll at Kansas City in August of 1862 as a 2nd sergeant at age 32. By November he had attainted the rank of captain. Walter has signed the inside cover “W, Buncher,Capt. And AAG, Jackson Cty. Reg., E.M.M., Nov. 3rd, 1862“. He has also penned his name in bold ink on the end of the book “W. Buncher”. On the back side of the front cover is the original label from the book store where Walter purchased this copy in Leavenworth, Kansas. Overall the book is in extremely good shape with all the pages intact and binding solid. Very nice example from a seldom heard of unit!
