Dennis - I'm with George on this one. There was likely no communication between his company and the hospital that would have informed the hospital that he had been reduced in rank, so the hospital carried him on the rolls at the rank he held when he arrived. On the company muster rolls, the last time he was shown as 5th Sgt. was May and June of '63. From July '63 forward he is shown as a private. I believe that George is correct in assuming that when it was realized that he would be absent from the company for an extended period, another man was awarded his position as 5th Sgt. I also believe that your assumption is correct that as Hood's army approached the Tenn. battles, all available men including the walking wounded or those otherwise ill, but not confined to a bed, were put on the line. Since all Union POW records show him as a private, I assume that he was either wearing that rank or told them himself that that's what he was.

A side note not involving Harris: As I went back and re-read the muster roll records of events for Company K, I once again ran across a little dark humor among otherwise very business-like reporting. At the end of a fairly detailed report of the movements of the company during Jan-Feb 1863, the writer states, "Beef scarce and so poor it takes 2 to make a shadow."