Greg
I have JUST found this website, and now it is May of 2007. How are you coming with this book you are writing on Ship Island Prison? I am searching for our great-grandfather, Thomas B. [T.B.] ODOM, who as family history has handed down, was captured in the woods on March 30, 1865, around Daphne/Point Clear, AL, waiting for the ferry to pickup him and his family, and take them across Mobile Bay to find a life and work in Mobile. They say he was taken to Ship Island and they think he was in the AL Reserves, at least. He DID come back home to Baldwin Co sometime later [when they were all released, probably from Vicksburg--1866?], after which time [1867] deserted his whole poor family and disappeared to Gilmer, Texas.
Would you be able to shed light on this scoundrel? I have found who I think was him on a microfilm YEARS ago as: ODON, Thos, Pvt, and can only assume this is our fellow, but I'd also like to know if someone was there with the exact name of ODOM, Thomas. Old family members think he may have been in the military and gave "1 Ala Regt, Co. C" as a unit name.
Thanks SO much for your help.
Evan Strohl
Pensacola, FL