Alan,

Thanks ever so much for your help; as a novice, I need all the clarification I can get! A friend helped me enhance the copy of the document in question and it is indeed an oath of parole. You're right; the month, though still illegible, has to be May as the following appears in the document: "...terms of the Military Convention, entered into on the 26th day of April, 1865 (Johnston's surrender to Sherman)".

My questions now are...would the fact that this soldier's parole is contained in his compiled service record mean that he didn't take it with him? Did they photograph these records back then in order to KEEP a copy in the file? Did he die?

I have files of other soldiers who were paroled in 1865, but their parole papers were not in their service record files.

Thanks again!