Your comments and questions and my responses are in [brackets]:

“G.W.Ezzard left a statement late in life which reads in part, "Fought the last battle at Smithfield, N.C. after Lee surrendered. Mustered out at__________ had already gone home and got my parole at Kingston. Georgia." Obviously, he was wrong when he said, "after Lee surrendered."” And “Also, where did the April 9, reorganization take place?”

[I don’t know where you got the statement above but the timeline below should help. He clearly received his parole at Kingston, Georgia. His original copy is in his Georgia Confederate Veteran Indigent Pension request.]

Battle of Smithfield, North Carolina, March 31, 1865.
Battle of Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, April 9, 1865.
Consolidation and reorganization of the Army of the South (army included the Army of Tennessee, the Department of North Carolina, Department of South Carolina, and Florida, Cavalry Command), Smithfield, North Carolina, April 8-10, 1865.
Lee’s Formal Surrender, April 12, 1865.
Johnston’s Surrender at Bennett’s Place (Durham), North Carolina, April 26, 1865.
Parole of the forces under General Joseph E. Johnston, May 1, 1865.
Wofford’s (sub-district of North Georgia) Surrender at Kingston, Georgia, May 12, 1865.

You ask, “Where did he muster out from?”

[As mentioned in the previous email, I believe he left the service at Smithfield after the reorganization.]

What did he mean by, "I had already got my parole?” What do you make of this statement?

[I don’t know what context in which he made this statement.]

Where are the records for it?

[No precise records exist from the reorganization. There are none that tell us why an officer was discharged. The cases that I am aware of where officers were discharged the officer in question often retained the paperwork and presented later in life to prove service or pass onto descendants. The vast majority of the records in the last days of the war did not survive. I have read a couple of stories of records at the regimental, brigade, and even division level being burned in the closing days.

Why was he not retained? (too many officers for too few troops?).

[Yes, likely. The strength of the 39th Georgia on April 8, 1865 was 114 with only 84 total effective. Given that the authorized strength of a regiment is 1,100 you can see it was a shadow of its former self. I'll go back in my files and try and find what the strength of the 36th Georgia was on this date]

Where can I see the roster of reorganization of troops (36 Ga.)?

[The 36th Georgia was consolidated with the 42nd, and parts of the 36th and 56th Georgia to form the 42nd Georgia (Consolidated). The other portions of the 36th and 56th Georgia regiments were consolidated with the 39th Georgia to form the 39th Georgia (Consolidated). The best way to see a roster of the reorganized troops is to look at the Muster Roll of Officers and Men paroled in accordance with the terms of a Military Convention entered into on the 26th day of April 1865, dated High Point, North Carolina, April 27, 1865, paroled Greensboro, North Carolina, May 1, 1865. Yes, there will be men that will have been sick, wounded, died, discharge, and deserted between those dates but no other muster rolls survive during that gap. There are three sources you can look at that may be of assistance. The hard way is to go through the 1,300+ compiled service records of the men in the regiment and look for the card noting that they were present at the surrender, look at the original muster roll on microfilm, available at the National Archives and with the historians at the Bentonville battlefield (the do not have printing capability), or in Lillian Henderson’s multi-volume set “Roster of the Soldiers Confederate States of Georgia, 1861-1865.”]

That leads into your next question. You asked, “Also, in the muster roll for Co. A., 36 Ga., in Confederate Military History, the statement is made- "Pension records show he surrendered at Smithfield, N.C. April 1865."” and “What does that mean (surrendered)?”

[I do not recall any rosters of the 36th Georgia being in the “Confederate Military History, Extended Edition. Volume 7: Georgia.”. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot, 1987. I believe you are referring to the entry in aforementioned Lillian Henderson’s multi-volume set. Her researchers are referring to a minimal questionnaire that someone filled out for him in reference to his service. He was totally blind from cataracts and someone obviously had to do it for him on August 16, 1921. It asks, “When and where surrendered?” His response was, “April 9, 1865, Smithfield, North Carolina.” He was discharged but no surrender took place. I think he was confused. A note on anything in Henderson’s Rosters, do not take it at face value. Look at the original records. They are often missing key information and can be very, very misleading when doing any type of analysis. I am aware of people relying on them to do research for graduate work and I have been questioned about them. They are inaccurate for any type of analytical work.]

You ask, “Also, would he have had a horse to ride home, if he was an officer, or could he have taken the train? (he came to Smithfield on one.)”

[What leads you to believe he had a horse to come to Smithfield on (source)? Horses for company grade officers went away about mid-war. The army could ill afford feeding the animals that were not pulling wagons or being used for other duty. They would not have had to have them for command and control because they could take a dozen paces and cover the frontage of their soldiers. If the animal was government property on April 9, 1865 and he departed the service then it would have remained with the army. If it was his personal property, it would have gone with him. As far as his mode of transportation back to Georgia, I would speculate that he could have taken rail to a point and then the lines were cut at multiple places by the Federals. As mentioned in my previous note, most of the men of Cumming’s/Henderson’s Brigade walked back to Georgia.]

You ask, “Also, I am in the dark about his movement from enlistment until the fall of Vicksburg. Where do I go for that?”

[The movements of the 36th Georgia pretty much parallel those of the 39th Georgia. They were sister regiments in the same brigade for the entire war.]

The movement (to Mississippi) and then to Bentonville is also confusing.

[Walking, steamboat, and train. In reminiscence that I am finalizing the editing of, the author goes into that movement in pretty decent detail. I can give you the macro-view of up to Augusta. Tupelo to Meridan, Mississippi to Demopolis to Selma, Alabama, train; from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, steamboat; from Montgomery to Columbus, Georgia, train; from Columbus through Fort Valley through Macon to Augusta, Georgia, train with the exception of the stretch from approximately Sparta to through Milledgeville, by foot.]

I have been unable to find a history of the 36th Georgia.

[You will not find a thorough, consolidated history of the 36th Georgia. I will probably give the 36th Georgia its most thorough coverage in the regimental history of the 39th Georgia that I am currently writing.]

Below is a brief bibliography on the 36th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Bain, William. "The Case of Jesse A. Glenn." Whitfield-Murray County Quarterly Historical Society Newsletter, Volume 20, no. 2. Whitfield-Murray County Quarterly Historical Society, 2001. p. 9-13.

Confederate Military History, Extended Edition. Vol 7: Georgia. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot, 1987. pp. 114-115.

Crute, Joseph H. Jr. Units of the Confederate States Army. Midlothian, VA: Derwent Books, 1987. Ref. p. 106.

Henderson, Lillian. Roster of the Soldiers Confederate States of Georgia, 1861-1865, Volume 3. Hapeville, GA: Longino & Porter, 1959. p 929-1013.

Jeffares, John E. "John E. Jeffares Letters." Confederate Reminiscences and Letters, 1861-1865, Volume XVIII. Georgia Division United Daughters of the Confederacy, 2002. p. 250-253.

Jones, Charles E. Georgia in the War, 1861-1866. Atlanta, GA: Foot & Davies, 1909. p. 30.

Sifakis, Stewart. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Georgia Volume. NY: Facts on File, 1995. p. 246-247.

Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume 6. Janet B. Hewett, Noah Andre Trudeau, Bryce A. Suderow; editors. Gary Gallagher; contributing editor. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1995. p. 658-665.

Wallace, Alex M. Letters. Military History Institute Manuscript Archive, Leigh Collection, Bk 26. Carlisle Barracks, PA.

I hope this is of assistance. Please feel free to email me at rebel1863@hotmail.com with additional questions.

Respectfully,

Gerald D. Hodge, Jr.
M.A. Military History - Civl War Concentration
War Between the States Historian
Research - Preservation
Historian: 39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment