Other than the intelligence gained from his record, the standard boiler plate of these men is:
" __John Doe___________ Appears on a List of Confederate Paroled sick and wounded Prisoners, shipped from Vicksburg, Miss. July 24, 1863, to Moibile, Ala., via New Orleans, La. List dated _______not dated________________"
This would indicate that the War Department copyists had an unidentified list from which to take off this information. Whether this document provided any identification of the Steamer or any other data, we do not know. It's possible that the Old Army research specialists at the National Archives might be able to locate this list. I doubt however that we will find what we seek as those CSR cards which ID Steamers were from printed forms stating the Steamers name.
New subject, so far, I've only completed a partial review of Stacy's regimental roster, Two men were identified as from Brigade Hospital No. 4 and another from General Hospital. The 31st/39th, along with the 3rd, 43rd, and 59th Tenn., along with the 3rd Maryland Battery, were assigned to Reynold's 4th Brigade of Stevenson's Division. Hence, the majority of the men of these regiments were patients at their own brigade hospital. I have no idea of where it was situated. It very well could have been the Marine Hospital located on the River side of Warrenton Road.
Below from my regimental history touches on the hospital situation at Vicksburg during the siege:
05 23 1863 [Saturday]
The suffering and deprivation of our troops is beyond description, and yet they meet it all bravely and patiently. . . It is really a sad sight to see our poor horses and the public mules, going up, as the Boys term it. Many of them have been turned out of the lines to starve or draw Rations from the Yankees. The most of our Water is hauled from the river at night, and kept in barrels in the trenches. The cooking and Hospital camps are established in the Ravines between the hills or knobs for which this place is remarkable. The rations are cooked by the men detailed as cooks and carried to the men in the trenches. The men in the trenches have a close time, I assure you, remaining at thier places day and night with thier accoutrements hung upon them all, and if they look over the trenches, perhaps a dozen Balls salute his ears . . . The weather is hot and dry, had no rain here in a month. I see that the sick list is increasing. (119)
05 24 1863 [Sunday]
Sgt. Everhart is reported wounded at the Fourth Brigade Hospital near Vicksburg. (Record of Events, Co. D, 31st Tenn., OR Supp. pp. 279)
06 04 1863 [Thursday]
Surgeon in Chief Minor, Hospital No. 1 requests of BGen. Thomas H. Taylor, Commanding Post to detail for duty in the hospital, Pvt. William Agee, Co. F, 43rd Tenn. “. . .where he has been on duty for some time past. It is absolutely necessary for the comfort of our wounded that this man should remain.” Endorsed approved by Gen Thomas at Hd. Qs. Post , V.Burg. (M268 Roll 290)
In a letter protesting the assisgnment of Pvt. William J. Agee, Co. F, 43rd Tenn. to duty at Hospital No. 1, Col. A. W. Reynolds, 4th Brigade commander, states that Pvt. Agee has been detailed to wait on the sick of my own Brigade and sent to the Marine Hospital for duty with Dr. Hodge**. The 43rd Regt. has eighty sick in hospital and few men capable of nursing. He also notes that Pvt. Agee is a good nurse and waiter and should remain serving the men of his brigade. Forwarded by Gen. Stevenson without comment. (M268 Roll 290, W. J. Agee, Pemberton Papers National Archives)
06 11 1863 [Thursday]
Some sharp shooting going on today. We are liable to be struck with a ball any minute. We are in a position where they fall all around us and in our midst. J. L. Miller [Co. B] was strick with one today. The ball was well spent and didn’t enter his flesh. It is said we have in Vicksburg, 31,380 men with 30 or 40 days rations. (Clack)
The hospitals begin to be filled up showing how much exposure, fatigue, hot weather, and short rations and wounds are diminishing our effective force. The indisposition is generally of a slight character and would probably soon be removed if we were out of the narrow limits to which we are confined. Hospital reports show about ten thousand under charge of the surgeons, one third of our force as I understand, though numbers after a few days rest improve, so back again to duty in the trenches. (178, pp. 366/7)
06 15 1863 [Monday]
Continual firing all day. Our doctors sent all the sick at the hospitals that could walk back to their Regiments. Some, who could hardly stand alone, were forced to come, the result of which was some of our good boys relapsed and died. They were buried beneath the sod of the Mississippi Valley. (Stamper)
06 20 1863 [Saturday]
Grant launched an all-out artillery attack, in the hope of bringing the city to it’s knees or cracking its defenses.
The caves dug in the hillside were poor protection against the heavy shells that came screeching through the air with varying notes of teror. If one lifted his head ever so little above the earthworks, the crack of a sharpshooter’s rifle, followed instantly by a dull thud, would announce the doom of another Reb. A man who was slightly wounded in the trenches stood in considerable danger of being more seriously injured, if not killed outright, as he traversed the open space between battle line and hospital. Life under such conditions became a torturing ordeal, and the situation was not helped by jesting speculation as to the prospective comforts of Johnson’s Island, Camp Chase and Camp Douglas. (62, pp. 79)
06 30 1863 [Tuesday]
Muster roll of Co. B, 39th Tenn. records that Sgt. James S. Brown had been detailed to make coffins in 4th Brigade Hospital (M268 Roll 275)
............
In a listing of casualties of the 4th Brigade, Stevenson’s division during the siege of Vicksburg, commanded by Col A.W. Reynolds, the following Knoxville newspaper note, no date, appears:
“Editors Register-I forward you the above for publication, believing that it would be the surest way to relieve the great anxiety felt for the members of the 4th Brigade by their friends in Tennessee. Within the past two months disease and death have been among us, and the bodies of some true and brave men now lie mouldering upon the banks of the Great Mississippi. To the friends generaly permit me to say, that the sick and wounded of our command, who were unable to move with the army, are all collected at a brigade-hospital, and Surgeon Hodge** of the 43d Tennessee, Assistant Surgeon Thomassen of the 59th Tennesssee and myself are remaining to care for them. They are not under the treatment of Federal medical officers. As early their condition and safety will justify, they will be conveyed within the Confederate lines, and thence, I trust, to their home.
I am, very respectfully, B. W. Toole, Senior Surgeon of the Brigade.
(Knoxville Daily Register)
** Hodge, Ambrose W., Capt., Co. D, 43rd Tenn., age 38, Physician, accompanied the command among the paroled sick and wounded prisoners shipped July 24, 1863 to Mobile Bay via New Orleans