Alice --

Here are my notes on that company. Captain Daniel R. Hundley organized the "Madison Guards" at Huntsville, Ala., June 17, 1861. Mustering Aug. 10, 1861, at Memphis, Tenn., members were assigned to the 2nd Confederate Regiment (also called the 25th Mississippi Regiment) as 1st Company "D". Officers and men later formed Company "A" of the 55th Alabama Regiment.

I didn't realize that the man you had in mind was that old. It would be quite unusual for someone that age to volunteer, unless his wife ran him off! Life in the open was hard on the constitution of much younger men. Service records frequently provide compelling information along those lines.

It's easy to imagine that the war was the contributing cause of death for most men who 'disappeared' during these years. Sometimes we forget that mortality will catch up with us, war or no war. I was reminded of this during the week when reading the obituary of a business friend who died at age fifty.