Sorry for the delay in responding. Yesterday was a "busy" day for me.

You wrote: >>> That there were two such men in B/42nd Va is confirmed by muster rolls for that company through December 1862 in the Saunders Papers at Univ. of Va., which were not available to the CSR compilers. <<<

I accept your conclusion on this. You have looked at enough of these records to know that the Saunders Papers contain war time muster rolls, and not muster rolls re-created in the post war years from the collective memory of the veterans. The post-war "muster rolls" are subject to substantial error due to the passage of time.

You wrote: >>> Those muster rolls show him present in B/42Va on 31 Oct 1862 and 31 Dec 1862. <<<

This clarifies, for me any way, that William David ARGABRIGHT was a prisoner at Fort Delaware in the summer of 1862 and was delivered to Confederate authorities at Aiken’s Landing on 5 AUG 1862. I will add this man to our Society database on the basis of your research as well as the Compiled Military Service Records. Incidentally, the name used on the two CMSR Federal POW records is “W. (no middle initial) ARGABRIGHT”.

You wrote: >>> In my mind, this set of primary source records establishes that William D. Argabright died of disease in prison on 18 March 1863. How he got to prison and what prison remain the questions to be answered. <<<

I don’t have any problem accepting the CMSR records that show that William David ARGABRIGHT died 18 MAR 1863, and that he died of disease.

It is the “in prison” part that I think was a WAG on the part of the Confederates in 1863 because he was absent and they did not really know where he was, or because his comrades in the ranks were trying to cover up his being AWOL. Was William absent on furlough, perhaps sick furlough, after 1 JAN 1863? If he was captured, when was he captured? The missing muster rolls you found in the Saunders Collection say that he was present for duty in Virginia at the end of 1862. His second date of capture would fall between 1 JAN 1863 and 18 MAR 1863.

And I do have a problem with the speculation that he died at Fort Delaware.

(1) To be at Fort Delaware in March 1863, (a) he could have remained at Fort Delaware instead of being delivered on 5 AUG 1862, or (b) he could have been recaptured somewhere between 1 JAN 63 and 18 MAR 63 and returned to Fort Delaware.

Remaining behind at Fort Delaware, unaccounted for, through three waves of deliveries for exchange from the end of July 1862 to March 1863 would be a bizarre story indeed and one worth knowing about! Fort Delaware had a small post hospital at this time, one conducive to caring for the garrison and a few prisoners, but not the large 600 bed hospital that was completed in August 1863. Your research makes clear that Case (a) did not happen which leaves us tracking down documentation for Case (b).

(2) There were very few Confederate POWs held at Fort Delaware in the early months of 1863 because the Dix-Hill Cartel was still being honored with respect to the enlisted men. The Cartel required that prisoners of war taken by either side would be paroled and returned to their own side within 10 days of capture, or as soon as practicable thereafter. The turn-around of POWs (in and out) arriving at Fort Delaware during the fall of 1862 and spring of 1863 was roughly two weeks. City Point was the place of delivery on the James River for the returning POWs. Union paroled POWs released by the Confederates were delivered into Union hands at City Point.

Case (b) is possible, but still not probable, because of the absence of POW capture and transfer records.

(3) The Federals were pretty good record keepers for POWs, more so than the Confederates. There are no capture or prison transfer records in the CMSR for William David ARGABRIGHT in the spring of 1863 and I gather you did not find any in the Saunders Papers collection.

I suppose this also brings into the realm of "possibility" the speculative notion that he was captured and detained as a civilian and sent to Fort Delaware. There are very few records of these people to be found!! William is not listed among the 39 known civilian prisoners who died while at Fort Delaware. Floyd County, Virginia (his home) was in the southwest heartland of Confederate Virginia and pretty much out of reach of any Union cavalry raiders during the spring of 1863. Had he been furloughed or AWOL to some place in West Virginia, the case for being captured and treated as a civilian might be more likely. This speculative scenario would likely have taken him to Charleston, West Virginia and the Athenaeum Prison there.

(4) I will examine the NARA Tape 47 in our collection as soon as I can get to it, and see what I can make of Mrs. Jamison’s notes. I will be able to give a better description of Tape 47 when I do that. I know that it is named in a published list of microfilm records.

More later!

Hugh