Alan J. Pitts
Re: Co. G 46th Alabama Infantry Regiment
Thu Jul 26 10:23:52 2001


This company was from Randolph County and mustered at Loachapoka AL on May 15, 1862. Members elected James M. Handley as their captain, but when he received the appointment as major of the regiment, Coleman A. Allen took his place.

Based on the information you provided, I assume that your ancestor had become too sick to travel and was left behind when the army retreated from Kentucky. If accurate, the death date is also significant. The body of a prisoner who died in mid-November would not have been shipped south for exchange, since the exchange agreement extended to living men only. Confederates who died in prison were buried rather quickly in a portion of ground set aside for that purpose. I have never examined them, but reasonably good lists of Confederates buried in Northern prisons seem to exist.

As for the exchange list, I'd have to assume a clerical error. Northern clerks were working with long lists of names which were checked off as men got on and off ships and trains. I wonder if some Union military administrator left the names of dead POWs on this list in order to inflate the number of Confederates being returned. This was an exchange, with an equal number of Federal POWs to be released, so if the Confederate officer responsible for receipt for POWs returned at Vicksburg signed a list with your ancestor's name on it, some Yankee got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

I'm sorry not be of more assistance. I'd have to check your ancestor's records to make a more accurate assessment, but will be out of town for a few days.