I examined this man’s Compiled Military Service Records via www.fold3.com and discovered an unbelievable mess!! You have jumped over a lot of data in order to pose your question!

The Company D muster roll covering July & August 1863 shows that William was absent at the end of the period (31 AUG 63) and was accounted for as missing at Gettysburg on 2 JUL 1863. He was last paid on 30 APR 1863.

The Company D muster rolls covering September & October 1863, November & December 1863, January & February 1864, and March & April 1864 show William to be present for duty at the end of each of those muster periods and paid on 31 OCT 63 and 31 DECD 63. Further, he received clothing issues in October 1863 and on 3 MAY 1864.

Federal POW records show that William was captured at Gettysburg on 2 JUL 1863, that he was confined at Fort McHenry on 5 JUL 1863 and confined at Fort Delaware on 6 JUL 1863.

There are no further Federal POW records documenting his transfer from Fort Delaware to Point Lookout in either September or October 1863.

There were only a few ways out of Fort Delaware – death, escape, galvanize & join the Union army, or be paroled for exchange and handed over to Confederate authorities. The last shipment of able bodied captives paroled for exchange from Fort Delaware under the Dix-Hill Cartel (the 1862 general exchange agreement) departed on 4 JUL 1863 (the first Gettysburg POWs began arriving on 5 JUL 1863) and were delivered to Confederate authorities on the James River on 6 JUL 1863. The next release of men paroled for exchange from Fort Delaware occurred on 31 JUL 1863. Some 750 sick, wounded or otherwise debilitated prisoners were sent down to the James River and handed over on 3 AUG 1863.

The absence of any records for William showing him returned on 3 AUG 1863 with a shipment of sick and wounded AND his being accounted for as present by the 9th Alabama Infantry suggests a successful escape – either by physically escaping or hiding among the sick and wounded under an assumed name.

The Federal POW record for Point Lookout tells us that William was captured at North Anna on 3 MAY 1864 and that he took the Oath of Allegiance and joined the Union army at Point Lookout on 17 OCT 1864. That would make sense in the context of the company muster rolls for the fall and spring of 1864 and for the clothing issues made to William in the same period.

Hugh