To do some serious "digging" into the history of the 31st Louisiana Infantry, you need access to the microfilmed Compiled Military Service Records of the regiment from which you can extract names and service highlights, and do a thorough statistical analysis.

Dr. Bergeron has pretty well sketched out the history of the regiment from beginning to end. From my own research into the question of exchange of the Vicksburg parolees who went home to Louisiana, I have deduced the following.

The seven Louisiana regiments surrendered at Vicksburg were reorganized into "Allen's Brigade" based upon the 1,813 Vicksburg parolees who presented themselves in Louisiana parole camps to be ready for exchange prior to April 1, 1864. This April 1, 1864 list was sent to Richmond for a declaration of exchange. This did not happen until July 1864.

In parole camp at Pineville, Sergeant Will Tunnard of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry dates the declaration of exchange for all those who reported into parole camp before April 1, 1864 to July 21, 1864 based on General Order No. 56 signed by LTG E. Kirby Smith. This declaration of exchange was unilaterally made in Richmond by Colonel Robert Ould, the Confederate Commissioner of Exchange. This was confirmed and the balance of the Vicksburg paroles who reported into parole camp (and remained) after April 1, 1864 were cleared by the special Cartel of July 28, 1864 signed between the T-M Department and the Federal command in New Orleans. Federal POWs captured during the 1864 Red River campaign were returned as part of this exchange. The Vicksburg regiments were reformed, re-organized, and returned to duty.

An excellent first hand account of this final period of the war for the Louisiana Vicksburg parolees was presented by Sergeant Will Tunnard in "A Southern Record: The History of the Third Regiment, Louisiana Infantry" (Baton Rouge, 1866, reprint Morningside Bookshop, 1988). I strongly recommend that you his personal and up-front account which was written in 1866 very soon after the end of the war.

It will be difficult to determine how many Vicksburg parolees returned to duty after General Orders No. 56 were read and the Cartel of July 28, 1864 was signed, since most of the company muster rolls for units in the T-M were destroyed when the units disbanded prior to the official surrender of the Department (dated May 26, 1865 at New Orleans, signed by General Smith June 3, 1865).

Since many if not most of the men had already disbanded and gone home, one of the surrender protocols required all Confederate soldiers of the T-M Department to report to a Federal parole center nearest their homes to be accounted for and released on parole. Many did, many did not, and there is no way to distinguish between those who actually returned to duty after General Orders No. 56 and the Cartel of July 28th, and those absentees who had not, but simply (and properly) came in to clear their names. This "Final Parole" is frequently the only surviving record of service for soldiers in the Trans-Mississippi for the last 18/24 months of the war. Absentees from regiments serving east of the Mississippi River at home in the T-M who had not previously beem accounted for and released on parole were also covered by this protocol.

I have plenty of information on the Simmons brothers who were enrolled in Company B (the Caldwell Avengers), 31st Louisiana Infantry and will be happy to exchange information with you.

Hugh Simmons