Throughout his term as speaker of the house, Coffee performed his important duties with dispatch. He presided over the sessions and followed the adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Among his powers were committee and chairmanship appointments. He did not campaign for reelection the next term.
By 1860, his political ambitions appeared to center on securing the Democratic nomination for Missouri's secertary of state. In a mid-February meeting, Dade County's Democratic Committee met and instructed its delegates to the state convention to vote for Coffee. (24) Benjamin F. Massey, however, won the nomination. (25) For a brief period, Coffee returned to his law practice, worked his 800-acre farm and supervised his slave family. (26)
When the Civil War erupted, Coffee, his beliefs in states' rights firm, raised a Confederate regiment in Dade County and won election as its colonel. He also established recruiting camps in southern Missouri for Gerneral Thomas C. Hindman (27) Official reports in Records of the war of the Rebellion scarcely mention Coffee until after Sterling Price's Confederate victory at Lexington, Missouri. After the Lexington battle, Price withdrew his Missourians to Springfield, thence to the southwest corner of the state, and finally to the security of the Boston Mountains of Arkansas.
On March 7, 1862, Generals Price and Ben McCulloch of Arkansas, fighting in the command of General Earl Van Dorn, were
defeated in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, by the Union forces of General Samuel R. Curtis. Again, Price withdrew his men to extreme Southwest Missouri and returned to the Boston Mountains. Following the Confederate defeat at Shiloh, Tennessee, Price took most of his army to Corinth, Mississippi. Soldiers who accompanied Price, joined the Confederate army for three years. (28) Confederate unites, remaining in Missouri, continued as independent commands.
Coffee chose not to go with Price. Instead, he established a camp at Cowskin Prairie in the southwest corner of Missouri. On April 26, 1862, Coffee and some sixty Missourians under his command joined Colonel Stand Watie and his Cherokee troops in a skirmish with the First Missouri Cavalry. A Confederate victory ensued, but Watie, in his report, mentioned that he was forced to withdraw because Coffee did not supply expected support. (29) By mid-May, Coffee had made camp at Maysville, Arkansas. Four hundred Confederates had joined him. Union General Samuel R. Curtis described these men as "the most despicable, rough, ragged rascals ever congregated together." (30)
At the end of the month, Coffee and some 200 of his motley cavalry joined contingents of Watie's troops to attack Union cavalry near Neosho. The rebels suprised their enemy and routed them. Watie reported that: "Colonel Coffee's cavalry, which had charged simultaneously with our infantry, kept up the pursuit for miles." (31)
In late July 1862, JO Shelby, recently returned from Tennessee, joined forces with S.D. Jackman and Coffee. The officers and their men rode through Neosho and traveled north with Jackson County as their destination. This force, joined by John T. Hughes, Gideon W. Thompson, Upton Hays, Vard Cockrell and their men, also actively recruited to swell its ranks. (32)
Union General E. B. Brown became aware of the Confederates' plans and reacted accordingly. From his Spriingfireld headquarters, he issued a circular on August 2, calling for the people of southern Missouri "to rise in a body and protect their homes and families." Brown was convinced that "Coffee and his band." in particular, would destroy the Union troops efforts to maintain "peace and security." (33)
Coffee and his men led the Union troops on a merry chase. On August 5, Brown reported to General John M. Scholfield that: "Coffee has doubled, and yesterday afternoon was going south near Mount Vernon, our troops in pursuit of him." (34) On the same day, Brown sent a dispatch to Colonel Frederick Salomon and stated that: "Coffee and [James S.] Rains made a recent raid into the State...but they move so rapidly I have but little hopes of coming up with them." (35)
