After the law of Feb. 17, 1864, men ages 45 to 50 were assigned to senior reserve units. This man, Ascerbus Brookens, appears on the 1850 and 1860 census as a resident of Tallapoosa County, born in 1824. He's not that old, just somehow escaped the conscript officer up until May 26, 1864. He became sick shortly after arriving in Virginia and probably never saw action. He was with the regiment for such a short time that the company commander didn't remember his name for the composite roll that Diane noticed.

The composite company roll dated at the end of 1864 covers the period from company organization (April 27, 1861) through the end of 1864. Commissioned by the State of Alabama, company rolls like these were taken by comany commanders of most Alabama regiments in Virginia and returned to Alabama by Col. William Fowler. Examples which survived the war are available at the ADAH in Montgomery. State authorities forwarded original rolls to Washington when CSRs were created a century ago. After cards were created for CSRs, originals were returned to Montgomery.

In my personal opinion, logistics simply didn't allow for transportation of bodies home for burial, especially not during the last year of the war. There were far too many dead soldiers, not enough rail facilities or resources in the Confederacy for this kind of luxury.