Helen:

Lieutenant Colonel H. A. M. Henderson was the Confederate Agent of Exchange who received paroled Confederate prisoners of war from the Federals and returned paroled Federals to their own side during the last year of the war. Camp Townsend was established in mid-March 1865 and was located on the west side (Federal side) of Big Black Bridge some 20-30 miles east of Vicksburg. Vicksburg was firmly in Federal hands and the Big Black River was an unofficial boundary between the two sides. Camp Townsend was an agreed upon delivery point where paroled prisoners could be handed over to their respective sides. The agreement between the two sides establishing the Camp Townsend and the "Aubrey Territory" can be found in the Official Records, Series II, Volume 8, pp. 404-5.

The surrender of General Richard Taylor at Citronelle, Alabama on 4 MAY 1865 placed all Confederate territory east of the Mississippi River in Federal hands and there were no authorized Confederate units in the field east of the Mississippi to return to duty with. This was John A. Wynn's final parole. Delivered to Colonel Henderson on 6 MAY 1865, he was free to go home or anywhere else he chose.

George Martin's suggestion about dying at the hands of bushwackers en route home is a real possibility. Had he been too sick or debilitated to travel, it would seem that word could have been gotten to family to come and get him.

Relative to John A Wynn's 1863 Vicksburg parole, he was declared exchanged after his reporting into the Confederate parole camp at Enterprise, Mississippi in December 1863 and returned to duty.

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society www.fortdelaware.org
12th Louisiana Infantry www.rhsresearch.org/12LAINF.htm