I appreciate your works over the years such as your work on the Confederates of Randolph County, "Shades of Gray." I see in that work on page 81 that your Captain Aurelius C. Samuel was captured by Union troops near Syracuse and murdered 27 August 1863.

If I can assist you in partial repayment for how your works have helped me over the years, this may be my opportunity to assist.

There is another local work that tells about two Cooper County brothers named Koontz killed near there about this same time, that I mentioned on pages 202-3 and 226 in my 1863 book. Further, I see in the 1860 census that there were two Samuel or Samuels households (A. H. Samuels and William R. Samuels of Kelly Township) in that same vicinity of Cooper County near Syracuse. Could those other Samuel or Samuels families have been kin to your A. C. Samuel? Could the captain have been there for a visit when the Union soldiers caught him?

Shelby's raid was not in that area until about a month later, but perhaps Captain Samuel was there as part of an advance party.

I have more about the killing of the Koontz brothers and a notorious Union unit passing through on the railroad train that may have been responsible. If you would like to contact me offline at Mapmaker3@aol.com we can email back and forth on this. I will tell you what little I have on this here on this forum, too, if you like. You choose.

Bruce Nichols