Thank you for the inputs. Now I am being challenged to explain letters written at the time that your sources indicate that Robert M. Renick [RMR] was incarcerated at Myrtle Prison. You are apparently relying on the Eakin book. As there are no copies of that book anywhere conveniently available where I am, I am reluctant to spend another $30 to try to get closer to an understanding of the facts. Since other regular posters to this forum, like you, seem to refer such questions to her book, it must have passed your tests for providing valid information. And, I hasten to add, I have no reason to doubt the accuracy in this case. But, I wonder if you could provide me with some information about the nature of the book; your sales pitch might help me decide to spend the money.

For about another 10 days, until the loan is due back to the LDS, I have at hand a microfilm reel out of the Provost Marshals' Files series. This one is otherwise called: "Prisoners: St . Louis, Mo. (Gratiot Street Prison), Jan. 1862-Oct 1863". Judging from the full title of Ms. Eakin's book, and looking at the list of closely-related microfilm reels, it appears that I would have to order five additional reels from the LDS out of that series if I wanted to cover the entire time period for Alton, Gratiot and Myrtle.

That alone would make the investment in the book sort of a 'no brainer', but, looking at the material I have on the reel at hand, I am interested to know how the author might have been able to provide something like what you quoted in the RMR case. What I have for the time snippet at Gratiot is mostly a pretty uninteresting periodic inventory of the names of prisoners on hand as of some date, along with some specific orders noting new arrivals and departures. The 'inventory' does not provide anything like a 'case history' for an individual, showing, as you did, a date of arrest, a date of release, and something like the specific penalty awarded. In short, based on the material I have on this one reel, it would seem that the original author, or you, using whatever is found in the book, would have had to collate separate microfilm images, probably extending over different reels, and perhaps, even interpolate material's relating to a 'case' not found in those Provost Marshals' Files at all.

Either way, one or both of you in combination, are providing a succinct statement that is extremely helpful, for which I am very grateful. I would like to understand how I would go about reproducing it for other actions taken against other persons during the period of Martial Law. And, specifically, to resolve the conflicting sources for RMR, I would like to understand whether a 'case' of the sort you sited indicates that the person was actually confined to those squalid conditions you graphically provided at Myrtle, during the time interval indicated. Or, might it have been the situation that, the collating and interpolating of discrete material yields a time line with a start and a stop, but does not indicate a continuous incarceration?

I know, questions, questions, questions; you try to help a guy out and all he does is bombard you with more questions. And I can't even guarantee you that the questions will stop, but I [and many others who are monitoring the topic] am learning more from each incremental posting of very helpful pieces of the puzzle.

Thank you.