I have no knowledge of Linda Green.

I am familiar with the published work of Col Hillary A Herbert. As Lt Col of the 8th Alabama Regiment, he was wounded and disabled during the battle of the Wilderness. As best I recall, he did not return to command of the regiment. In any case, the regimental adjutant was responsible for regimental records, not the regimental commander. Hillary Herbert simply took compiled company records saved at the end of the war and included them with his regimental records.

Allow me to explain the process of taking company roll.

The compiled records which you dispute were written by company commanders and the orderly sergeant who actually took company roll. These were in turn submittd to the regimental adjutant, reviewed for completeness, totaled and sent by chain of command to the Confederate War Department. If a company member was away from his command for any reason, it became difficult if not impossible to know what became of him. For example, a soldier home on leave due to wounds or illness might be captured and sent to prison. It would be impossible for the orderly sergeant hundreds of miles away to determine the captured soldier's exact status.

Regulations called for a soldier who overstayed leave for any reason to be listed as absent w/o leave and dropped from the roll after a period of time as a deserter. No exceptions allowed without positive information to the contrary. The soldier could return to his company and be reinstated. However, I do not know of one case in literally tens of thousands of records reviewed over the years in which the prior record was changed. Sometimes a note would be appended to roll, stating that a soldier returned to duty since the roll was sumitted. The original roll status (absent/cause) was retained.

Please understand that Col Herbert did not deliberately misstate anyone's service record. My own ancestor served under Col Herbert in the 8th Alabama, and I'm somewhat sensitive about his good name and reputation (Col Herbert's).

Thank you.