Tommie --

The nearest train station would have been in Talladega, the rail line ending at Blue Mountain until after the war. The next closest rail station would have been Opelika or Auburn or West Point GA. Also, Clay County was created during Reconstruction. If you're right, this man probably lived in that part of Talladega County taken to create Clay County in 1866. Checking Ancestry, a least one response to the 1860 entry for James Marion Reeves questions the match to "M Reeves" in northern Talladega County AL, but I won't take that up now.

After checking every entry for James M or J M or J W Reeves/Reaves, I don't find anything that matches your story. That's other than a single entry for the Camp of Instruction at Talladega for James M Reeves, Sept 13-15, 1862. Most of the other candidates either died during the war and/or enlisted in a different part of the state. There is a James M Reeves who served in Co I, 14th Alabama Regt. His company came from Louina in Randolph Co, but he enlisted when the company organized in the summer of 1861.

Being over the age of 35, I don't know why he would have been subject to the initial conscription law of Apr 16, 1862. Could be that he was discharged from camp at Talladega and sent home. If he had valid Confederate service, this man's widow could have filed for a pension before her death in 1899. After checking Alabama pension applications, I don't see that she made an application.

For other clues, check into family members among his brothers (if any) or sons old enough to have served. You could include his first wife's brothers as well.