The service file for Peter C. Wheeler shows him present with his company on roll dated Oct. 31, 1864, but absent in hospital since Dec. 20, 1864, on the following roll. Notes on company rolls show its station as Cahaba AL, where Palmer's company served as guards for a Confederate military prison. The roll does not say he was wounded, and I cannot guess how a guard could have been shot or injured on duty unless by accident or by personal assault.

To the best of my knowledge there was not military conflict at Cahaba, the nearest Federal troops being stationed at Forts Gaines and Morgan in December 1864.