Bryan Howerton
Re: Two Parole Dates
Tue Apr 24 17:38:41 2001


I believe the information on the first card was provided to the Federal authorities by the regimental adjutants, basically a list of men carried on the rolls at the time of the surrender. The reason for the detail of the list is that the Arkansas troops had completely reorganized about three weeks before the surrender, with most of the depleted regiments being consolidated into two -- the 1st Consolidated Arkansas Infantry and the 1st Consolidated Arkansas Mounted Rifles (each containing the remnants of a half-dozen or so regiments). When the reorganization took place, a complete muster roll was made out -- the first comprehensive muster roll since August 31, 1864 -- and this, I believe, formed the basis of the parole list.

In the first week of May, the soldiers who were present for duty signed their individual paroles. Those who were marked as absent on the first parole list were later individually paroled at various locations (mostly hospitals) throughout the South.

And, of course, those with a third parole date were those who were apparently intercepted and/or detained on their way back home, and forced to sign yet another parole.