Can anyone provide closure for activities of Capt Oliver Crosby GRAY between 19 Aug 1964 when he reportedly resigned the Confederate Army and 16 Nov 1864 when reportedly the Feds captured him at Choctaw Bend on way home to Princeton, AR. He was last there, according to entry in Virginia's diary, 23 Nov 1862, "...left with the horses ..." presummedly gathering horses to remount the 3rd, --- "About a month after Cornith..." for Holly Springs Raid, 20 Dec 1862, after their dismounted, bloody defeat at Cornith and Hatchie Bridge?

Entry July 7, 1864, page 141/42 in wife Virginia's diary, Part II published summer 1983 in AHQ, in part states:

"Heard from Mr Gray through Mr Dedman [1st Lt Robert H. Dedman (1831-1899, buried Princeton, AR with wife), of Co A, 3rd Ark Cav Reg. under Capt GRAY, appointed Capt., Co. A, upon Gray's resignation]. He says Mr Gray is about to resign with intention of entering the "navy" which must be the 'Federal' as there is no other."

Virginia was mistaken!!!!!

Fact is --- the Confederate States of America did indeed have a Navy! Army Maj. Harold Borland, s/o Solon Borland, captured Aug 1863 aboard vessel "Alice Vivion" while trying to run a blockade from Mobile to Havana with bales of cotton, was imprisoned until Oct 1864 with many CSA naval officers at Ft. Warren, Boston.

1. Did Oliver Crosby GRAY join the Confederate Navy?

2. Capt Oliver Crosby GRAY was appointed Provost Marshall Dec. 1863. Did this relieve him of commanding Co. A? If so for how long?

3. Where was the 3rd before and at the time he resigned, 19 Aug 1864? They supposedly were under Fighting Joe" Wheeler (Graduated USMA year before Harold Borland), who is reported as, <www.wheelerplantation.org/confederate_synopsis.htm>, to wit;

"In August General Hood ordered Wheeler to take 2000 cavalry on a raid into Central Tennessee, but he returned demoralized with less than one thousand and according to Forrest only about 500 who were effective for combat."

4. Why did it take from 19 Aug to 16 Nov for Oliver
to get to Choctaw Bend?

Nothing we found written in Virginia's 1983 published diary, nor in any of her 30 unpublished letters, which we have been privileged to read, clarify what happened those three months in Oliver Crosby GRAY's life.

Anyone want to tackle this mystery of Capt Oliver Crosby GRAY?