Hi Terry, I sent you an email. I have an ancestor that was a pilot on the Yazoo during the war. When the war began he enlisted in the 28th MS Cavalry but spent almost the entire war detached as a pilot on the Yazoo river. Your assesment that these pilots served from their local areas seems to be true in this case as most all of the census information i have found indicates he was living in Greenwood, MS or Leflore Co. before and after the war. His family background indicates a lot of steamboat experience before the war.

There is also some family heresay that he was involved with the Star of the West when it made its way from New Orleans to the backwaters of the Mississippi north of Vicksburg.