Hugh, I must thank you so very much for such an interesting and detailed explanation. I've wondered about so much and your words have really helped to clarify things for me.

The reason I am curious about what kind of other information the prison records might contain is because I would like to find out if there is any further explanation as to the kinds of wounds my ggrandfather suffered. As I mentioned before, his cmsr states that he was wounded in the "head, neck and jaw", however I made an error when I wrote that it stated he received these wounds during his capture. I don't know when they were received and I am curious as to his physical condition at the end of the war because I am trying to figure out if a story I've been told about my ggranddaddy is true.

My grandmother was 15 when her father died, so she knew him fairly well. (He was 69 when she was born). I was 21 when my grandmother died - and by that time had expressed an interest in the family history and had been "picking her brain" for several years. Anyway... she always said that her father told her he'd met his first wife after she'd nursed him back to health following his being wounded during the battle of Spanish Fort. The whole family has always taken this as Gospel as we had no reason to ever doubt it. Everyone in the family knows the story. However - when I eventually received Moses' military records it doesn't say anything at all about him being wounded during the battle of Spanish Fort - or even participating in it. It only mentions him being wounded in the head, neck and jaw during the "Chickamauga campaign at Farmington", which is where he was captured and eventually sent to Camp Morton. And it says nothing at all about him having been blinded in one eye, either, which you would *think* would have been mentioned somewhere! Yet grandma always told me he had a "glass eye" from a wound he received during the war. So I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if old ggranddaddy perhaps "embellished" things a bit. Regardless of how much of a die hard southerner he was (and he was - he even named his first child - born 1866- "Dixie"!), how could he have fought in the battle of Spanish Fort with the use of only one eye - or if his health were so bad that he was "exchanged" because he was thought to be no further physical threat to the north? If I could somehow find his medical records for when he was at Camp Morton then perhaps it would state more specifically what his "wounds" or incapacities were.

Another theory is that maybe he did somehow manage to fight in that last battle and became wounded again at that time, losing the use of one eye - and his military records just didn't list it? Grandma did say that he had to be nursed back to health for quite some time by his then future wife. He did live not that far from Spanish Fort - after the war he eventually moved from Greenville and homesteaded a place near Brewton.

Regardless - I guess we'll never know for sure what actually happened - the Camp Morton records were kind of a long shot on finding out some possible information for me. And even if I don't ever find out any more, at least I have learned a fascinating amount of information during my pursuit of answers and it has proven to be a truly wonderful lesson in history for not only myself, but also for my 8 year old son who I am currently homeschooling. He has now become enthralled with all things civil war - and even wants to be a "Johnny Reb" for Halloween! We both quite enjoyed perusing your Fort Delaware site and found it most informative. Quite a bit of information there for a number of our future history lessons.

Thank you again so much for taking the time to help explain things so well.

Diane