Pvt. John M. Hurst, Co. A, 27th Arkansas Infantry, has a major discrepency in his service record. One abstract card states that he died in a hospital at Little Rock on February 6, 1863. Another states that he was captured in Marion County on December 13, 1862, while serving on detached duty guarding a nitre cave. It further states that he was sent to the prisoner of war camp at Alton, Illinois, then forwarded to City Point, Virginia, for exchange, on April 1, 1863. I suspect that the latter is true, because a man with the same name was paroled at Vicksburg on July 8, 1863, as a "nitre guard." Several Arkansas soldiers got caught in the net in the fall of Vicksburg, awaiting transportation back to Arkansas.

I don't have sufficient information to connect this man with the man that Matt asked about. It would seem to me that if Private Hurst of the 27th Arkansas had applied for a pension after the war, he would have cited his service in that regiment, and not some obscure outfit no one ever heard about. Of course, there's always the possibility that he had deserted from the 27th Arkansas, and hooked up with another outfit.

Right now, I'm listing these as different men in my database until someone can help out with something linking them as the same soldier. I might add that both men were from Marion County, which makes their connection a distinct possibility, but I can't confirm anything. Hopefully, someone can help resolve this, one way or the other.