In a letter of Elisha Thaddeus Dunn Co. C 7th Miss. May 5th 1862 from Corinth he wrote his mother after returning to the regiment after a furlough in Amite County caused by sickness, the following quote causes me to have two questions:

1. Who were the Shifowith (Spelling?) Guards? Mississippi or Louisiana Unit?
2. Who is Bird Hurst? Is this a nickname for Col. David W. Hurst of the 33rd Miss.? or another Hurst?

“I did not see Bird Hurst at Grenada. I passed there on Saturday at two o’clock a.m. and as I wished to get to my company as soon as possible, I could not stop. I learned there that night that all the regiments had left Grenada except Hurst’s. I left the Shifowith Guards at Jackson, Mississippi. They went on to Vicksburg."

We know his brother Matt Dunn was in Co. K 33rd Miss.