After these two went to Camp Watts in early September 1862, we don't know what happened to them until February 1863. Uniforms issues in February could be due to recent arrival. Could be mistaken about recruits being listed on regimental rolls for October, November and December 1862, but new men should be there.

It usually took several weeks to collect enought able-bodied conscripts for delivery and arrange transportation. Also, Major Swanson may have retained his conscripts for scheduled training exercises (see Bill Murray in Stripes. :-) Travel from point to point could take up to two weeks. All that could add up to a January 1863 arrival.

We're making assumptions about how Confederate military administration worked. Military bureaucracies are rarely models of efficiency, and Confederate adminstration definitely had its short-comings. Also, I've found little evidence of communications re regimental strength (or lack of). One would think that good regiments in need of rest and recruits could have been exchanged with regiments on garrison duty at Mobile. That didn't happen. During the winter of 1863-64 the 26th Alabama was transferred to provost guard duty at Andersonville. However, that may have been based on Lee's desire to remove Colonel O'Neal from the Army of Northern Virginia than a need to the regiment to recover its strength and efficiency.

Bottom line - their decisions were not always based reasoning we can easily appreciate today.