Thanks for your work; this should be registered as an on-going project. I hope to complete a list of deaths in the three Henry County companies of the 37th Alabama in a few days.

I'm also working on the 11th Alabama, using consolidated muster rolls which reflects information available through 12-31-1864. I'm comparing muster roll data to the NARA CSR's for additional detail and verification. Muster roll data should be available for each of the five regiments in Wilcox's Brigade.

It's evident that officers who produced the rolls relied on memory or hearsay for some information provided in the remarks column. For instance, they didn't have access to information from Confederate hospitals or Federal prisons for dates and places of death, discharge or release. There are numerous instances in which a soldier appears on roll as "killed" in a particular action, but contemporary records show that he died days or weeks later. In addition, the CSR's include transfers, captures, promotions and surrender information as a result of events in 1865.

That being said, these consolidated rolls are extremely valuable for information that doesn't appear in the CSR's. Some soldiers do not appear at all in the NARA microfilm. In one case a soldier's name may have been deliberately taken off roll, perhaps because he was a suicide. Also, CSR's may only show that a soldier was present on roll, with nothing to indicate what became of him. The muster rolls almost always provide notes to show what became of the man in question. That is, if the ink on the roll isn't too faded to be readable.

Information from the company rolls was used to produce company abstracts. These abstracts started with a total number of officers and men enlisted, and deducted those taken off roll due to death, discharge, transfer or other causes. Of the number remaining, those absent are then deducted and the various causes shown: in prison, on detail, disabled by wounds or disease, and other causes. This leaves a total remaining, officers and men present for duty. With the information we have in the CSR's these figures can be updated to show the number remaining when the unit surrendered and disposition of those who died or were captured before that date.

These carefully edited figures for Wilcox's Brigade should prove quite useful for our purposes.