I am trying to solve a family mystery and have found that there are people on these forums who are very knowledgeable. On the Mississippi board, people have helped me get information about ancestors and provided very valuable background information. Now I am looking into a possible ancestor who was a physician in New Orleans and commissioned an officer in Company S, CSA Medical Staff Infantry Regiment. His name was T. G. Richardson and he served as a surgeon on General Bragg's staff. Based on writings about his life at the time of his death, he left New Orleans to serve in the Confederate Army shortly before the city was captured by the Union, which occurred at the end of April 1862. He returned to New Orleans after the war.

These are my questions:

1. Can one get his service records with the above information? In other words, do medical staff have service records like those of fighting soldiers?

2. Were Confederate officers able to go through the lines and re-enter occupied New Orleans to visit family? Even if regular officers would not have been allowed to do so, would medical personnel be excepted? (This man had a first wife and children, and I am trying to figure out if they stayed in New Orleans or perhaps evacuated. A child was born in 1863, the timing of which would necessitate either a furlough to New Orleans, or the wife's residence closer to where he was serving, such as with family in Kentucky.)

3. How freely could women (and children) come and go from New Orleans during the occupation, if at all, particularly those whose husbands were serving in the Confederacy?

4. Did some or most families who had the means to do so evacuate when capture was eminent? Or did most civilians remain?

I would very much appreciate any information along these lines. Thank you very much.