Hi Geoff,

Thanks very much for getting back to me. More below:

>>>>You are correct - that particular file was a War Dept. dumping ground for soldiers that the clerks could not conclusively ID as to which "2nd Cav" they belonged to. There was similar confusion between the various 10th Ky. Cav. and 14th Ky. Cav. regiments - confused soldier files and "dumping grounds" as well. There were several KY CS units that don't appear separately in the CSRs, or in either Sifakis or Crute (Sifakis is better - Crute's book is quite unreliable, when it comes to KY units).>>>>

As I went though this "third" file I noted that there were men taken at Cynthiana in 1864, East TN in 1863, and other capture sites. Knowing what I do know of the KY Cavalry units with the "2nd" appellation, these men could not have come from one of them but, rather, all three of them. What a confusing mess! Also - the file seems to only contain POW records and nothing about the men mustering in, etc.

>>>Anyway, after looking at these (and other) records, I'm still a little confused about this soldier. At first I thought there were two records for this soldier - the POW records you found for Sgt. Joshua Brown of Cos. D/E, Woodward's 2nd Ky. Cav., and also a record for a Pvt. J. R. Brown of Co. D, Woodward's 2nd Ky. Cav. To confuse the matter further, there is a pension record for the widow of Joshua Robert Brown of Co. D, Woodward's 2nd Ky. Cav. But this Joshua Robert Brown in Woodward's 2nd Ky. Cav. (your POW ?) can't be the same as the Pvt. J. R. Brown who has a CSR in Woodward's 2nd Ky. Cav., because J. R. Brown was sent to the hospital in the fall of 1863 and died there in January 1864, and he is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Madison, GA. Joshua Robert Brown (your POW ?) survived the war and lived in Breckinridge Co., KY, and died there in Feb. 1901.
BUT ... This widow's pension record says that Joshua Robert Brown was born in Meade County, KY (where a lot of Woodward's men were from). But it could be that she just didn't know he was from Clarksville. Or, it could be that this isn't your POW Joshua Brown at all (but I found no others in KY CS lists). It does appear that this Joshua Robert Brown in Woodward's 2nd Ky. Cav. is the best match for the man in your POW record.>>>>

Neither of these guys are the Joshua Brown that I am seeking. He was born in Clarksville, TN in 1843. His UCV obituary is found in Confederate Veteran, Vol. 32, Page 436 which has all of his biographical information. Some of it is hooey I think. Since these cards have nothing about where and when he joined Woodward that part of his history is wide open. The CV bio has him joining Woodward in the Fall of 1862 and they list the unit as the 2nd KY Cavalry. What I have found is that this unit did not exist then. Woodward, as you know, was part of Helm's 1st KY Cavalry, the one year version. After that enlistment expired, Woodward set out to raise his own command which he was doing in August 1862 when he joined with Adam R. Johnson, also raising his 10th KY Cavalry, Partisan Rangers at the time, to attack Clarksville. BTW - The OR Supplement has Johnson's wartime report of this attack that ran in a Texas newspaper in 1862. The KY Adjutant General report states that this command was, at the time called Woodward's KY Cavalry Battalion. It was this unit that was part of Forrest's West TN raid of December 1862. In January 1863, it seems, this battalion fell apart and Woodward then raised his 2nd (15th) KY Cavalry regiment.

Does this jive with what you know about these units? I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that the CSRs for Woodward's 2nd KY Cavalry also contain those for his antecedent Cavalry Battalion?

The CV bio has Brown being taken at Stones River in December 1862 - which would be impossible if he was with Woodward then operating in West Tennessee at Parker's Crossroads on the same day! If he was captured in December 1862 at all it was at Parker's Crossroads and I even doubt this as Woodward's troops were on the bottom of the box that had surrounded Cyrus Dunham's Union brigade and thus had the easiest escape route of all of Forrest's units that day. His POW cards in the CSR rolls we are discussing only mention his November 30, 1863 capture when he was part of Coleman's Scouts.

>>>>BTW, the "15th Ky. Cav." was an artificial unit that that clerks in the Ky. Adj. Gen's office invented when they were compiling the Adjutant General's Report, because they thought this would lessen confusion between Duke's 2nd Cav. and Woodward's 2nd Cav. Woodward's unit was never called the 15th during the war.>>>>

I thought the CS War Department created that designation? I know that Woodward's regiment was not called the 15th KY Cavalry in the war (even though he never filed a single report - at least any that survive) by him or others.

>>>>Steve Lynn may have more insight into this, and I hope he chimes in here. >>>>

I do not know Mr. Lynn - hope he does jump in here.

One last question - since the CSR file for the hodge podge 2nd KY Cavalry has Brown's cards with nothing but POW stuff for his capture in November 1863, what happened to the cards with his enlistment notes, any wartime service before November 1863 etc.?

Greg Biggs