This is an excellent case study showing why family information regarding a soldier is usually unreliable. Unless a family member was present with the soldier during the events described, anything they heard about him would be hearsay. This must be true even though family members are educated, intelligent people, as in this case. In contrast most information found in military service files should be drawn from first-hand information. The exception to that would be muster rolls showing a soldier as absent.

In this case we learn that Private J. N. Bishop enlisted at Camp of instruction, Enterprise, Miss., Jan. 6, 1863. He was enrolled by Lieut. John C. McBeth of Co. "K", 5th Mississippi Regt. Major and QM Samuel Prince paid Private Bishop to May 20, 1863, at which time JNB received a discharge from service. Presumably he went home and remained there until conscripted by Lieut. Johnson and taken back to camp Enterprise MS. JNB reenlisted there on Sept. 10, 1863. The daughter mentioned was born a month later.

Note that anything she learned about her father came from a second-hand source after she was old enough to understand and remember. From the little I have read about her elsewhere, JNB (same initials) must have been an impressive lady.

Private Bishop was present on roll for Dec. 31, 1863, Feb. 29, 1864 and Apr. 30, 1864. JNB was paid for service by Capt. and AQM James R. Kidd. A statement by the surgeon in charge of Dawson Hospital, Greensboro GA lists the personal belongings of JNB when he died in June 1864. There are no death claim papers on file to show that the widow was ever informed of her husband's death.