Soon after posting my review of Mark Geiger's Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865, I received an email from an internet friend and frequent correspondent, who also is an author and leading expert on the Missouri State Guard.
He questions: "where did the money that was supposedly funneled to the Missouri State Guard go? Certainly, the records of the Guard don't show any expenditures on small arms, uniforms, rations, etc. Gen. James Harding, quartermaster general of the Guard, constantly complains that there were no funds to purchase arms, cannon, and so forth. Therefore, it appears that most things were purchased on credit. I just don't see that the money ever made it into MSG coffers".
Shame on me for not thinking to the ask the question. Although Geiger mentions in the book that Shelby's brigade received some of the funds in 1862, this is supposedly millions of dollars we are talking about, and he appeared content (although, admittedly, it isn't essential to his thesis) to not follow the money to its ultimate destination.
So where did the money go?
No comments:
Post a Comment
***PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING***: You must SIGN YOUR NAME when submitting your comment. In order to maintain civil discourse and ease moderating duties, anonymous comments will be deleted. Comments containing outside promotions and/or product links will also be removed. Thank you for your cooperation.