Ann and I have corresponded off and on since 2000 on the subject of her great grandfather Nathaniel ODOM who was enrolled in Company L, 12th Louisiana Infantry. Nathaniel was a resident of Claiborne Parish, Louisiana who enrolled in Confederate service at Camp Moore on 13 AUG 1861 as part of Captain Isaac Lennard’s company from Homer, Louisiana. He was separated from the regiment in the chaos and confusion of the Confederate retreat from Champion Hill and was swept into the defenses of Vicksburg. While the main body of the regiment made the forced march to Crystal Springs as ordered by General Loring, there were some 200 members of the 12th Louisiana Infantry present inside Vicksburg during the siege. The able bodied were placed under the command of Captain John A. Dixon, the senior officer present from the 12th Louisiana Infantry and appear in official records as “Dixon’s Detachment of the 12th Louisiana Infantry”. Dixon’s Detachment was placed in the lines overlooking Mint Spring Bayou near Fort Hill. After the surrender, the able bodied members of the detachment were paroled in their camp on 6 JUL 1863. Nathaniel ODOM signed his parole certificate which was counter signed by Captain John A. Dixon attesting to Nathaniel’s identity.

Most of the Vicksburg parolees from the Trans-Mississippi went home for some well deserved rest and recuperation while awaiting their exchange declaration. In February 1864, Captain Dixon, also at home, sent out word to the 12th Louisiana Infantry parolees at home to report to parole camp at Vienna, Louisiana. Other commanders of Vicksburg parolees did as well. The lists of all of those who reported into parole camp prior to 1 APR 1864 were sent to Richmond to be used in the exchange accounting process. Nathaniel’s name was submitted on the list for the 12th Louisiana Infantry as being present in parole camp and ready for exchange prior to April 1st.

Meantime, the 12th Louisiana Infantry regiment had become part of the Army of Tennessee defending Atlanta. The May & June 1864 company muster roll done at the end of June 1864 states that Nathaniel was “now west of the Mississippi River.” The muster roll covering July & August 1864 done shortly after the fall of Atlanta states that Nathaniel was captured and paroled at Vicksburg and was “now attached to the 1st Arkansas Regiment, Trans-Mississippi Department.” There was a good courier service running between the 12th Louisiana Infantry and the folks at home during the summer of 1864, so the regiment had reasonably good intelligence about the absentees at home.

Ann’s family records show that Nathaniel ODOM married Mary Ann Elizabeth Shaw on 24 AUG 1864 in Homer, Louisiana. The Vicksburg parolees present in parole camp in the Trans-Mississippi were declared exchanged and returned to duty in August 1864. Dixon’s Detachment of the 12th Louisiana Infantry was temporarily attached to the 3rd Louisiana Infantry and sent to Shreveport. Ordered back to re-join the regiment, Captain Dixon took a mere handful of the regiment’s exchanged Vicksburg parolees back across the Mississippi River to rejoin the regiment at Tupelo, Mississippi. Most of the detachment’s exchanged men refused to return.

Nathaniel was not among those members of the 12th Louisiana Infantry who received their final parole at Greensboro, North Carolina in their camps on 28 APR 1865. And there is no record showing that he reported into a Federal parole center anywhere in the Trans-Mississippi to be accounted for and released on parole as required under the protocols of the Trans-Mississippi surrender dated 26 MAY 1865.

Ann recently sent me a copy of Nathaniel's 1868 voter registration oath ("Oath to be Taken by Those Who Were Never Disfranchised") dated 10 OCT 1868 in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. Her family history holds that Nathaniel and Mary Ann had six children born in Claiborne Parish before they moved to Bowie County, Texas where he is buried. After Nathaniel's death, Mary applied for a Confederate widow's pension.

Back to Ann’s query: What is the history of the 1st Arkansas Infantry from the spring of 1864 until the surrender of the T-M Department at the end of May 1865? Do the muster rolls of this regiment list Nathaniel ODOM? Where might Nathaniel have gone? The surname appears as ODUM in the Compiled Military Service Records for the 12th Louisiana Infantry.