Thanks for your ideas about this.

My only source on the refugee camp at Clarksville is my g-grandfather's autobiography. He was born in 1837 and died in 1925. He wrote his book manuscript in 1922 when he was in his mid-80s and admitted that his eyesight was so poor, he could not review what he had written. I have found some places where his memory apparently did not serve him correctly. For example, he referred to a cavalry raid going southward through NW Alabama in 1865 as being led by Van Dorn. He was undoubtedly referring to Wilson.

After mentioning that particular raid and noting that all the food was taken by the soldiers passing through, here's what he said (info. in parentheses was add by me for clarification), "At the same time that my family left (their home in Marion County, AL to go to Decatur, where he was stationed with the First Ala. Cav. USA--because, ahem, he had not gone on Sherman's march with the majority of the regiment), old man Roberts' family left, too. The only way they had to go was on foot. Mary (Roberts), the girl that was living with my wife, went with her mother. They were shipped to Clarksville, Tennessee, and put in a refugee camp. There, they all died except Mary and her sister just younger..." (Another historical source in the family wrote that they had all died from measles.)

In 1867 his wife died from complications of child birth and her married Mary, who turned out to be my g-grandmother.