I cannot "prove" this -- it's based on evidence suggesting what I stated earlier. Both companies were recruited in Fayette County, and large numbers of men left the 26th Alabama for one reason or another to join Roddey's Cavalry. The time line fits, the one record in the 5th Alabama Cavalry being a receipt for J. J. Wheeler dated March 1864, by which time he had been absent from the 26th Alabama over a year. Anyone may disagree with my assumptions here.

The other record is for Jesse Wheeler, Co. "H", 1st Alabama Cavalry Regt. It shows Jesse as a patient at Shelby Springs AL during the fall of 1864. This probably should be 5th Alabama Cavalry, as name and company for Jesse Wheeler both match the record for J. J. Wheeler. The clerk who made the entry could easily have misread that part of the hospital record for 1st Mississippi Hospital, which originated in Jackson MS.

During much of 1864 the 5th Alabama Cavalry saw service in Mississippi, north Alabama and Tennessee under General Forrest's command.