If you honestly could speak with Jeffery Price, it might or might not help.
The last time I heard from him he was at Fort Polk and heading to a war
zone. He was interested in his ancestor, whose name I do not remember,
and Jeffery was not kin to any of the White County Pioneer Prices that had
come out of South Carolina. His interest had come about because his
grandmother had talked about her own relatives experiences with the war.
My own ancestor, Sgt. Pleas Loyd, was with the 36th and was promoted after
the battle of Helena. Sgt. Pleas Loyd had not joined until June of 1862.
He was a Price connection in White County as he had married Fielding Price's
oldest daughter, who was my gg grandmother.
Times were so hard through central Arkansas especially the White County
area. The Yankees stole everything they could lay their hands on so if
your ancestor even went home to try and protect his family, that would
have been understandable.
Your ancestor may have even connected some way with the CSA 1st Arkansas
Cav. (considered guerillas (spelling may be wrong) by the Union)that Lt. Fielding
Price was listed with when he was captured and then later died( Feb. 1, 1865)
at the Yankee Prison in Little Rock.
Price and one other man died with chicken pox, but at least three survived their prison time there until May of 1865 when they took their oath and left heading
home. The real kicker is that unless a soldier died in prison or claimed it later, there was no way to tell who the men were with the 1st Arkansas Cav. I found that information on my Price in a book called "Rebel's Hell and came from the records
out of the National Achieves.
My best advice is to listen to Bryon Howerton as he truly knows about that
area of what is now White County during the Civil War.
White County also made a listing of every CSA and Union soldier that was buried
in their county by the White County Historical Society several years ago.
It is also possible that your ancestor switched over to the Union side.
I have this long lost cousin whose ancestor was a Guthrie and she was soooo
proud that her ancestor was Union soldier. I have honestly never heard a word,
since I informed her, he was one of the many who deserted the 35th Arkansas
in the Spring of 64 in Little Rock.
You may also need to think about this in that only some of the rolls are found,
meaning they could have even been destroyed after the war ended because
as it was, if the Union Army did not have a paper trail, there was no one
go after them.
This time was called a war, because that was what it was.
Good luck on your search.