Alan J. Pitts
Re: Samuel Watson May
Tue May 8 17:31:38 2001


The record under the name given appears on microfilm available at the Birmingham Public Library, Southern Collection, microforms, 3rd floor. Here's the citation:

Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations From the State of Alabama.
M311. 508 rolls. 16mm.

10th Cavalry records appear on reel 31. Again, not much there.

He's certainly not the only man to have decided he was finished with Roddey's command and military service for the Confederacy during that time. Anything I might suggest about what he was doing after he deserted and before he took the oath of allegiance would be pure speculation. If he had been in prison, there almost certainly would be some record of it. This was very unsettle period of time, and almost anything is possible.

The raid you mentioned was the Athens-Sulpher Springs-Pulaski Raid, Sept-Oct. 1864. Almost any good history of Nathan Bedford Forrest will have a chapter on that famous expedition. It was virtually the only good news available for Southerners at that point in the war, and men that accompanied Forrest on the raid were justifyably proud of their accomplishments.