Thanks George for looking into this and providing your measured perspective on what happened. I’ve immersed myself into the Civil War best I can but my resources are limited for specific research. I do question my own proposition that this William J. James is in fact my great grandfather. What I know he is born in Franklin County (on the Alabama boarder) Tennessee in 1844. I can’t locate a William J. James enlistment in Tennessee, only a William James (b.1841) for Jul. 8, 1861, Knoxville, Private, 26th Infantry 3rd East Tennessee Volunteers…but why go east to enlist, perhaps the central training spot for Tennessee? Two other William James’s enlisted in Tenn. but too old.

My William J. James appears in the 1870 Census living on two properties in Maury and Williamson Counties Tennessee, his stomping ground is middle Tennessee and he is married to a gal from Alabama. Triana is close to the Tenn. boarder and a straight shot north to Maury county and Nashville.

I have to ask the question…what is the likelihood that a late-teen middle Tennesseean goes south to enlist in West Point, Georgia on March 1, 1862? Does this kind of thing happen, a state allows an out of state enlistment?

My conjecture is William J. is aware of the fall of Ft. Henry (Feb. 6) and Ft. Donelson (Feb. 16) and the surrender of Nashville (Feb. 25, 1862), his parents (not slave owners) sees the advancement of the Union and cuts there son lose to go south to get training. He enlists of March 1, 1862. Perhaps I have an overextended fixation on this William J. James…it’s too artifically connected by me, perhaps. Thanks.