My grandmother's uncle served in Co. D 16th Ga Cav Battn/13th Ga Cav Regt. The compiled service records have his name as " P Cheik", "Parish B Cheik", "Parrish B Cheik", "Paris B Cheek" and ""Parrish B Cheek". They are all the same person. My grandmother told me her uncles' first name was pronounced "Paris". His correct name was Paris Bowers Cheek. His father, William Chelsey Cheek, served in the same unit. He is listed as "W C Cheik" and "W C Cheek" in his compiled service records. I don't know when either joined the unit, but it had to be after the 1864 Joe Brown census was taken in Jackson Co, Ga. In that census Paris is shown as a farmer aged 17 years 3 months and his father William is listed as a blacksmith aged 51 years 6 months. Both are shown as being born in NC.

My grandmother said William and Paris did not want to fight and hid from the enrolling officer. Eventually the enrolling officer found them and they were forced to join. William, the father, returned home to Jackson County after the war, but Paris never returned. According to my grandmother no one in the family, including William, knew what had happened to Paris. So about 30 years ago I obtained the compiled service records of both of them and learned the fate of Paris and why William didn't know what happened to his son. It seems William deserted in Oct or Nov 1864 and was confined by the Confederates in jail at Abington, Va. He was still in jail when the Union Army captured Abington. Paris continued to serve and was later captured in Bristol Tn on Dec 14, 1864. He was subsequently imprisoned at Camp Chase Ohio were he died of "Variola" (smallpox) on March 4, 1865. His remains rest at Camp Chase in grave 1537-CC. His last name is misspelled "Cheik" on his tombstone.