In Sept 1962, after being released from Alton prison, John M. McGinnis returned home and joined Webb’s Calvary, a local unit of Lt. Col. Dawson’s area (West Tennessee) guerilla warfare soldiers that later became known as Lt. Col. Dawson’s Battalion of Tennessee Partisan Rangers.

Lt. Col. Dawson and Webb were both from Dyer County, Tennessee which must have influenced John’s decision to join.

The Dawson’s Partisan Rangers were operating primarily in the West Tennessee area.