Your story is unbelievable--the kind you hear at genealogical conferences.

Obviously, I would love to have the POW story in my family history but, I want it to be true. I have re-read all the responses and looked thru all my sources again and I believe I cannot get over the hurdle of my ancestor SAMUEL WILBURN's enlistment date 01 Feb 1862 & place Ozark, Franklin, Arkansas being totally different from the POW Samuel Wilburn who enlisted 15 Mar 1863 at Roseville, Arkansas. That is a years difference in enlistment. I understand from the posts about how the companies seem to combine/overlap/disjointed but wouldn't the date & place of enlistment remain the same for the soldier as that is one of the identifying facts for the military's record keeping.

He & his future-brother-in-law, Thomas McFerrin signed up the same day & place and were in the same unit Clarkson's Battalion 1st organization Co A (Franklin, Ar) & then with Clarkson's soldiers under Lt. Col. Buster Co E. & then the 2nd organization Co A (Franklin County, Arkansas). Thomas McFerrin appeared before the Justice of the Peace and swore that he had known Samuel 55 years and Samuel did not desert & served till the close of the war & was paroled. (From Widow's Pension Packet)

Trying to do this right. Yvonne