Peggy:

My apologies for not looking under the surname spelling ALLEIN that you gave! I assumed it was a typo and didn't look further. Booth's "Records" does contain the record entry that you described. Booth actually lists this record twice using the alternate spellings of ALLEIN and ALLAIN.

According to Booth, and confirmed by what you received from the National Archives, Private B. F. ALLEIN reported into the Federal parole center at Shreveport, Louisiana at the end of the war and was released on parole June 7, 1865. He gave his place of residence as Madison Parish, Louisiana and stated that he had been enrolled as a private in Company H, 3rd Louisiana Infantry.

This is an end of the war Federal parole record only and I found no confirming Confederate muster roll information in Booth. This is not unusual for Confederates in the Trans-Mississippi who enrolled during the last two years of the war. T-M units disbanded and the men went home before the Department was officially surrendered on May 26, 1865. Confederate soldiers at home in the T-M who had not been accounted for and released on parole under other surrender agreements east of the Mississippi River were required to report into a Federal parole center near their home to be accounted for and released on parole.

My guess is that B. F. ALLEIN enrolled in the 3rd Louisiana shortly after its exchange and return to duty in August 1864. Why he might not have enrolled earlier [1861-1863] requires an understanding of the service requirements and exemptions granted by the Confederate Conscription Act first passed in April 1862 and amended in September 1862 and February 1864. You would have to tell me how old he was, whether he owned slaves or was a plantation overseer, or whether he had some unique occupation that qualified him for exemption from enrolled military service.

Dr. Art Bergeron's "Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units, 1861-1865 (LSU Press, 1989) gives a brief history of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry and tells us that Company H was initially recruited from Carroll Parish in the northeast corner of Louisiana. Madison Parish was just next door. BFA likely would have known men already serving in Company H.

The 3rd Louisiana Infantry was surrendered and released on parole at Vicksburg in July 1863. Most of the men whose homes were west of the Mississippi River went home to Louisiana to await exchange. The men were exchanged and the regiment re-organized in August 1864 and sent to Shreveport for the balance of the war. Sergeant W. H. Tunnard of the 3rd Louisiana wrote a detailed history of the regiment which was published soon after the end of the war. He describes in some detail their experiences at Shreveport following the exchange and you will find the answers to many of your initial questions there.

See W. H. Tunnard, "A Southern Record. The History of the Third Regiment, Louisiana Infantry" (Morningside Bookshop, Dayton, Ohio, Reprint with Preface, Notes, and Roster by Edwin C. Bearss 1988). Bearss' roster contains the same limited end of war parole record information on B. F. ALLEIN [he did not include B. F. ALLAIN].

Carroll and Madison parishes soon fell under Federal control and most of the property owning residents there fled west to Shreveport and Texas to escape. While you are reading up on the Civil War, let me recommend Dr. John D. Winters' "The Civil War in Louisiana" (LSU Press, 1963). He gives a lot of information about conditions in Madison and Carroll parishes during this period.

If you have a good Interlibrary Loan progarm at your local public library, you should be able to get library copies of all three of these books.

Again, I apologize for my impatience and not looking up ALLEIN in the first place! You have clearly done your homework!

Hugh