Here's a possible clue that comes from the record of 48-year-old Pvt Thomas F. Leggett/Legett of the 37th Alabama Inf. who also appears on that very list of sick passengers from the Minnehaha left at Greenville, Miss. on Dec. 31, 1862, "entirely destitute of rations, bedding, etc."

The one additional detail found for this man is that he died there (Greenville) of Smallpox the very next day, 1 Jan 1863, and that fact may help explain the apparent haste with which these sick were abandoned.