Even though there is a large number of members listed, it is a snapshot in time. Those names are compiled mostly from existing muster rolls [with, sometimes, some added in from prisoner or hospital lists].

You would have to look at the microfilm for the unit to know how many muster rolls were found...sometimes it is only one or a handful. So unless your soldier happened to be with the unit during the time period for that roll, he might not show up in the microfilm.

While it varies from unit to unit, overall I have found an average of about 25-30% of missing names. And, while I am sure that there were isolated instances of pension fraud, I am not convinced that it was widespread. Granting of a pension usually required other men of the unit to submit affidavites as to the applicants service, which reduced the potential of fraud considerably.

Something to keep in mind also, when you see "service record not found" or some similar entry that denies a pension, is that for the earlier pensions, the Confederate records had not yet been fully compiled. For that matter, they were hardly compiled at all. It appears to me that in Alabama at least, only those records in the hands of the State were searched unless the man served in a non-Alabama unit, in which case they would inquire of the State for which the man had served for records. This was particularly problematic when a man served in a Confederate National unit.