Alan J. Pitts
Re: Why two paroles?
Tue Apr 24 10:01:20 2001


Good question. To establish the basics, it appears that this man had enlisted in Capt. Breedlove's Co. "H", 45th Alabama. On April 8, 1865, his regiment was consolidated with other understrength Alabama commands. I haven't seen the law governing consolidations, but I believe there needed to be at least thirty enlisted men to each company. Companies "H" and "E" of the 45th Alabama had enough men together to form a consolidated company, so they were merged.

All ten companies of the 45th Alabama were consolidated in this manner to form four companies. These were grouped with six consolidated companies created from other Alabama regiments to form a new regiment, the 1st Alabama Infantry. The other Alabama units involved were the 1st, 16th and 26th regiments. Companies "H" and "E" of the 45th Alabama formed consolidated Company "C" of the 1st Alabama Regiment.

Of course this can all be terribly confusing. Out of this you will recognize Mark S. Dickinson's original unit, Co. "H", 45th Alabama, and his consolidated unit, Company "C", 1st Alabama.

It appears that prior to consolidation he was serving as 1st Corporal. Up until this time, most vacancies in understrength companies could not be filled for one reason or another. However, as part of the consolidation process, men who were then present could be promoted or appointed to fill the positions of those who were absent. Mark S. Dickinson's company commander, Captain John E. Jones, was assigned to duty as captain of consolidated Company "C", 1st Alabama. Evidently he promoted Mark S. Dickinson to 4th Sergeant, which is why he appears on the surrender record at that rank.

As for your original question about why there were two surrender records, I'd have to see the microfilm in order to provide a good answer. However, the information you had leads me to believe that he was not with his regiment at the time it surrendered at Greensboro NC, but was included on roll with his command anyway. It appears he was on assignment at Salisbury NC with men of the 16th Alabama, who surrendered as consolidated Company "D", 1st Alabama. So his name appeared on roll with this detachment when they surrendered in addition to being on roll with his actual command at Greensboro, even though he really wasn't present there.

I hope at least some of this makes sense. It all sounds rather arcane, but it's the best explanation I can offer. If I hadn't made charts for myself on each unit, it wouldn't make sense to me, either!