This is an unusual question, so bear with a little history.

One of my great great great grandfathers was Irenious Isenhour (both the first and last names are subject to variation). In 1860, he was in East Tennessee. However, he already had at least two uncles/aunts in Boone County, along with other kinsmen that had moved from Tennessee or North Carolina (Neeses and Ottingers). Irenious “joined” the Confederate 62nd Tennessee in Autumn 1862. The regiment was raised from East Tennessee counties, and many of the men had Unionist sentiments and “joined” to avoid being drafted (the Confederate draft had been suspended in East Tennessee, but was about to be reinstated). The 62nd Tennessee, along with its sister East Tennessee regiments in Vaughn’s Brigade (the 60th and 61st) broke quickly at the Big Black River, Mississippi, action in May 1863. Some reports state white flags went up before the Federal troops even reached their entrenched positions. The three regiments surrendered with the rest of the Confederate army at Vicksburg in July. Many of the soldiers never returned to the regiments when they were exchanged later in 1863, and many of the men eventually joined Union Tennessee regiments. Irenious himself joined the Federal 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (a 90-day unit) in the summer of 1864, and was later in the Federal 8th Tennessee. Very soon after the war, he moved to Boone County, Indiana, and spent the remainder of his life there.

A couple of years ago, an Isenhour descendant advised me Irenious spent several months hiding out in the woods and caves, before joining the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry. This was common in East Tennessee, ‘outlyers’ and ‘mossbacks’ hid from Confederate provost marshals and conscription officers. He said Irenious hid in Boone County, but I assumed it was an error and he meant an East Tennessee County. Recently, another descendant advised me he was told by relatives while growing up that Irenious hid around Mechanicsburg and Sugar Creek. I actually looked on a Tennessee map, unsuccessfully, for these locations, then discovered they were in Boone County, Indiana.

So here’s the question – why would an ex-Confederate soldier be hiding out in Boone County in (probably) 1862-63? The plight of East Tennessee Unionists was highly publicized in the North; I do not think that he would have had a reason to fear locals. I have a theory that may be correct. Under the unusual (by modern standards) rules of parole and exchange, captured regiments/numbers of men were ‘traded’ and returned to action. Is it possible that, as strange as it sounds, Federal authorities might have forced a Confederate soldier to return to a unit that was being exchanged, to make the exchange ‘valid?’ I do recall reading something to the effect that the Military Governor of Tennessee (Andrew Johnson) and other Unionist leaders at some point requested that Confederates from the surrendered East Tennessee units be allowed to join the Union army rather than return to their Confederate units.