Hi Kevin:

You wrote: >>> I suspect if William had taken the Oath of Allegiance on August 10, 1862, a record of this would be in his CMSR. <<<

That would be my expectation as well. But it doesn't appear in his CMSR, nor does any record of his being dropped from the rolls of his Confederate company. So every possibility is on the table in your search.

This situation has a familiar ring to it. I recall a similar discussion involving a missing 1862 ancestor who survived the war and was a resident of Norfolk. Norfolk was under Union control and "within Union lines" from the spring of 1862 until the end of the war.

You wrote: >>> Also William survived the war and was exempted from returning to duty. <<<

You have stated that there are no further records in his CMSR after his delivery to Fort Columbus on July 3, 1862. What documentation do you have for concluding that William was exempt from returning to duty? To be exempted from duty, he would need to have been discharged from Confederate service after his delivery on August 5, 1862 at Aiken's Landing. Those records should appear in his CMSR.

You asked: >>>Would both sides have kept a list of soldiers paroled on August 5, 1862, or was there a different procedure of identifying these men when the CMSRs where administered ? <<<

Yes. The "incomplete duplicate roll" that you cited was part of that process. Men were handed over, rolls were checked, duplicate rolls were given to each side, and an accounting process that dragged out over several weeks matched men "name for name" in an attempt to make exchanges on a "man for man, or equivalents" basis. Men were declared exchanged by name and returned to duty. Given the manual accounting process used, it is surprising that they were able to do what both sides had agreed to do. Surviving copies of these records ended up in the National Archives and the CMSR were created by extracting names and information from each muster roll, exchange roster, prison transfer records, hospital records, etc., etc, including these August 5, 1862 Aiken's Landing delivery and exchange records.

William is among the missing from this process and we are left to guess as to why.

Company muster rolls were required to cover every two month period: January & February, March & April, etc. When the confusion of battle intervened in this "end of period" accounting process, muster rolls were completed and filed well after the fact. You looked at other CMSR for men captured with William. Are there company muster rolls for William's company covering July & August, September & October, or November & December 1862? Dropping him from the rolls for any cause should have been noted on one of these muster rolls. His failure to return from captivity should have been eventually noted, especially when his fellow captives rejoined the regiment.

Is this the Norfolk case?

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
Website: www.fortdelaware.org
Society E-mail: society@fortdelaware.org