Prisoners of war captured at Brandy Station on 9 JUN 1863 would have been taken to the rear, paroled for exchange, and returned to their respective side at City Point, Virginia all within a month’s time span. If they had been sent to Fort Delaware, one or more records would have been created documenting this. I found no Fort Delaware POW records under this surname. It is also possible that they were paroled in the field and released to find their own way back to their units. The Dix-Hill Cartel was still being honored with respect to enlisted prisoners of war at this point in time.
Confederate prisoners of war captured in 1864 in Virginia would have been taken either to Point Lookout or Fort Delaware. Plenty of transfer records would have been created by the Federals and these would have appeared in each individual soldier’s Compiled Military Service Records. The only way out of these prisons was escape, death, paroled for exchange & release, or, after the fall of Richmond on 2 APR 1865, release upon taking the Oath of Allegiance. Again, I found no Fort Delaware POW records under this surname.
I looked up Jeremiah FAIRBURN’s Compiled Military Service Records filed under the name Jerry W. FAIRBURN, Company D, 7th Virginia Cavalry and was surprised to find no company muster rolls documenting his enrollment nor any Federal POW records documenting his capture and subsequent release on parole. I did find correspondence dated 15 JAN 1915 from the The Adjutant General in Washington to the President of the Louisiana Board of Pension Commissioners in Baton Rouge informing him that no records could be found of service, capture or parole of a man of this name (Jerry W. FAIRBURN). However the last document in JWF’s CMSR was a handwritten note from Colonel Turner Ashby confirming the enrollment of Jeremiah FAIRBURN in Captain Macon Jordan’s Company B, 7th Virginia Cavalry.
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To All Whom It May Concern
The bearer hereof Jeremiah FAIRBURN, a member of Captain [Macon] Jordan’s Company, Ashby’s Regiment of Cavalry, aged 18 years, 6 feet high, ruddy complexion, dark eyes, dark hair and by profession a farmer, born in Shenandoah County, State of Virginia, and enlisted at Hawkinstown in the County of Shenandoah on the 6th April 1862 to served for the period of 2 years, 9 months, or the war.
Given under my hand at Hawkinstown the 7th April 1862
[signed]
Turner Ashby
Commanding Cavalry
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I looked up Captain Macon Jordan’s CMSR and found only one muster roll covering November & December 1861. A roster dated February 1865 showed that Captain Jordan had been re-elected Captain of Company D, 7th Virginia Cavalry on 28 APR 1862. The National Park Service’s CWSS website contains a history of Ashby’s 7th Virginia Cavalry which indicates that the regiment was disbanded in mid-April 1865 after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on 9 APR 1865. No members of the 7th Virginia Cavalry were paroled at Appomattox. This disbanding of the regiment likely resulted in the destruction of the company muster rolls.
Following the surrender of General Lee's army, absentees at home not paroled in the field were required to report into the nearest Federal Provost Marshal to be accounted for and released on parole. I found no final parole document for Jeremiah FAIRBURN in the CMSRs.
I don’t have access to the pension application records. But the 1915 response to the President of the Louisiana Board of Pension Commissioners probably prevented Jeremiah or his widow from getting a Confederate pension from the State of Louisiana.
I hope this helps!
Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society