Quarter Master Sergeant J. N. Simmons, McNally's (Adam's) Arkansas Field Artillery, paroled at Vicksburg 7 July '63.
According to an early (pre-internet) researcher of my family, this is my GGGrandfather's brother. We think it is possible that James Newton "Newt" Simmons had just moved with his brother Hardeman Carroll to Tunica County Mississippi when the war broke out. It would not be out of the question for him to cross the river and join an Arkansas unit, but my understanding is that this unit was recruited around Little Rock. However, the original reseacher stated that he had the original parole, found in family papers, which, if so, would certainly carry a bunch of weight. The back side of the parole states that on 23 July, he was given a 30 day furlough home from Enterprise, MS, and was furnished transportaion home and then on to the rendevous point of Demopolis, Alabama. However, we next find him with his brother, my GGGrandfather, in the 5th Mississippi Cavalry. Here he served as a private. Given family stories about his rather wild and reckless nature, I can imagine it possible that he had moved on to somewhere in Arkansas as the war was breaking out, joined this unit, ended up with way more responsiblity than he wanted, and, when given the chance, accepted his brother's invitation to "jine the cavalry".
My purpose here is to make sure that he can't be eliminated as the J.N. Simmons in this unit. In other words, does anyone have any evidence that the Sgt. Simmons in this unit was, for example, a farmer from western Arkansas who could not possibly have been Newt Simmons from Mississippi?
Thanks