Brown's belief that Coffee was near Mount Vernon on August 5, proved incorrect. On that day, he appeared in Montevallo, a small town located in Southeast Veron County. Montevallo was not far from Coffee's camp on Horse Creek in the western part of Cedar County. When Coffee camped at Horse Creek in early August, about 200 men comprised his force. Through sucessful recruiting, he quickly added over a hundred others to his ranks. In Cedar County, the lawyer-politician-Confederate officer had enjoyed great military sucess. His and other Confederate troops had so terrorized the county's pro-Union population, during the spring of 1862, that many had left the county for the protection of Union-held Springfield. (36)
At Montevallo, a Union detachment of over a hundred men from Fort Scott, Kansas, surrounded some twenty pro-Southerners seeking to join Coffee's band. A skirmish ensued, and those Confederates that escapted made their way east to Coffee's headquarters. The commanding officer of the Union force, Colonel William Barstow, and one of his sergeants purportedly boasted to the Montevallo townspeople that: "We will have Coffee for breakfast tomorrow morning and we will take him without a cream and sugar." (37)
Told of the Federal attack at Montevallo, Coffee set off to capture the Union detachment. He wanted to surprise his enemy, but a Union sentry discovered the approaching Confederates. The Union cavalry mounted their horses and speedily withdrew to the south. Coffee and his ill-clad followers charged through the town from the east and pursued the retreating Federals. In their haste to escape, the Federal force left two supply wagons and large quantities of arms and ammunition, which would be put to good use by Coffee's men. (38)
By August 9, Schofield knew that Coffee had been recruiting near Osceola. (39) On August 14, Brown informed Schofield that Coffee and Rains, with a combined force of some 3,000, probably had formed a junction in Cedar or Barton counties. Schofield, in his St. Louis headquarters, sent a reply to Brown the same day. It illustrated the confusion created by Coffee, his troops and men like them in the Union defense of Southwest Missouri.
If Rains and Coffee are both west of you it must be a mistake about any very large force south of Forsyth. I apprehend it is a mere demonstration to facilitate the movements of Rains and Coffee. It may, however, be the reverse. The movements of Rains and Coffee may be intended to draw your troops away from Springfield. Do not let them deceive you. (40)
Coffee may have deceived Brown, as Schofield suggested in an August 12 report to General Henry W. Halleck, (41) but he had not deceived Colonel Clark Wright or Major Samuel Montgomery of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry. Wright had ordered Montgomery to "cut Coffee off," and on August 7, the major's troops sucessfully carried out the order,. His troops had attacked part of Coffee's cavalry from the rear, near Montevallo. The Confederate cavalry leader had split his force before the skirmish, sending half of his command to Osceola. Reporting the Wright-Coffee clash, Montgomery pridefully stated that "we have the old rebel in a tight place." (42) On the ninth, Montgomery found Coffee's forces reunited near Stockton. The Forth Missouri Militia and a company of artillery engaged the Confederates "just at daylight" on August 12, "and drove them handsomely...." (43) Shelby learned that Coffee was being hard pressed along the Osage River. He rode to the aid of his fellow officer, but Coffee and his men had outridden and eluded the enemy. They appeared to be out of danger. (44)
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