Few infantry regiments in the Civil War compiled a more distinguished record than the Fifth Missouri. The unique blending of fiery Irish Confederates from St. Louis with rural pro-Southern Missourians forged an unshakable esprit de corps, making the unit the crack infantry regiment in the western sector. Most of Colonel James C. McCown's troops were young men in their 20s, and their good health and physical conditioning allowed them to carry out their "shock" missions throughout the region. From the perspective of the common soldiers and the unit's leaders the activities and battles of the Fifth Missouri are recounted here.

This book is a thorough study of all known guerrilla operations in Civil War Missouri from January through August 1864. It explores the various tactics each side used to try to gain advantage, with regional differences affected by the differing personalities of commanders. The author utilizes both well-known and obscure sources (military and government records, private accounts, county and other local histories, period and later newspapers, and secondary sources published after the war) to identify which Southern partisan leaders and groups operated in which areas of Missouri, and describe how they operated and how their kinds of warfare evolved. This work presents the actions of Southern guerrilla forces and Confederate behind-Union-lines recruiters chronologically by region to reveal the relationship of seemingly isolated events to other events. The book also studies the counteractions of an array of different types of Union troops to show how differences in training, leadership and experience affected actions in the field.