Show-Me-Staters:

Greetings from Mississippi!

I just ran across a rank I had never seen before, and, since it is associated (at least in this instance) with a Missouri regiment, I thought I'd ask for clarification here first.

A Mississippi youth enlisted into the 5th MO Infantry in MS.

He is listed alternately as a "private" and as a "marker."

The term "marker" appears twice in his CMSR on Fold3.com.

(The soldier is fifteen year-old Charles Brown.)

Can anyone here tell me what the rank "marker" meant or what the functions of a "marker" were?

I'm flummoxed at the moment!

Many thanks! -- Jim Huffman, Adj., Gainesville Vols, SCV Camp 373, Pearl River County, MS