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Re: 19th Arkansas Infantry
In Response To: Re: 19th Arkansas Infantry ()

John R. Gilbert served in Co. I, 19th (Dockery's) Arkansas Infantry. His record in this regiment is brief. He wasn't an original member of the company, when it was organized in Union County. He joined at Vicksburg, Mississippi, sometime in 1862, and was discharged sometime thereafter. He was a medical student when the war started, and it's possible he was discharged after becoming a physician. Doctors, especially back in Arkansas, were in short supply, and many were exempted from service to tend to the folks back home, others were commissioned as surgeons in the army, and still others were contracted to staff army hospitals. All of these scenarios would have required that he first be discharged from service as an enlisted man. On the other hand, he could have been discharged on a surgeon's certificate of disability, unable for field service. The record just doesn't say, one way or the other.

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Re: 19th Arkansas Infantry
Re: 19th Arkansas Infantry