 Later, the Missouri Iron Brigade distinguished themselves, at the 1864 battles of Little Blue River and Westport, and captured many towns, from their Union garrisons, including Potosi, Boonville, Waverly, Stockton, Lexington, and California, Missouri.Rather than surrender, in 1865, with the collapse of the Confederacy, in June, Shelby and his men rode south, into Mexico, to offer their services to Emperor Maximilian, who declined to accept the ex-Confederates, into his armed forces.However, the emperor did grant them land, for an American colony in Mexico, and many of Shelby's Iron Brigade settled on the free land.