I've been researching my great-great grandfather Richard Calhoun Smith and was wondering if anyone could assist me. I have access to his Confederate Soldier Service Record via Footnote.com, and have a copy of his pension application file and his widow's application, as well from a fax-copy my late-Uncle made many years ago. There is one piece of information on his online index card at the Alabama Archives that I have yet to find the source of. It reads:

Discharge Date: 1865/05/00
Discharge Information: Paroled at St. Augustine, Florida

Where does this information come from? It is not in his service record at Footnote and on his pension application, he says he wasn't paroled.

He joined the 8th Florida Company D at St. Augustine in November of 1861 and fought until being unable to return from a furlough granted on January 21st, 1865.

Also on his pension application, he says he was an "artillerman" - did the 8th Florida have a pair of cannons, or something? Or could he be thinking back to his days of being in Grayson's Artillery? Or can we just presume his being over eighty-years old may have been a factor?