My gg grandfather William Cordwell Cross (b.20 Aug 1818 d.29 Aug 1882) served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army. He lived in Northwest Al in a small town known as Cherokee. It is near Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Florence, Buzzards Roost, etc. His brother Cyprian Cross of Mississippi was also a doctor in the Confederate Army.

Several references to Dr. William Cordwell Cross appear in Kate Cumming's original "Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee" as well as in the later reprint "Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse" edited by Richard Barksdale Harwell, Lousiana State University Press. Miss Cumming's service began at Corinth, Mississippi, where wounded and dying soldiers from the recent Battle of Shiloh were cared for. Later she was transferred to near Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she assisted in caring for those men who suffered from wounds at Chickamauga and subsequent battles. Kate's hospital service then supported the Confederate Army of Tennessee through the Georgia campaign at several Georgia locations until April 1865, at the end of the war.

It is during the time in Georgia that Dr. Cross travels on the train with Miss Cumming when the Confederate Hospital has to be moved. As a result, the info contained in the journal is interesting, but it doesn't really satisfy my curiosity about what Dr Cross did earlier in the Civil War.

I checked out the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors site and found W. C. Cross listed as being with the 16th Alabama Infantry which was formed near Courtland, however, Dr Cross is not listed on rosters including this one which seems to be fairly complete. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~abaltz/16intro.html . How do I find out where he was? Was it common for surgeons to be moved around alot from unit to unit? Would these transfers have been recorded in his service record?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.