Mike --

I confess to being astonished by them, but there are cases of Alabama soldiers who received furloughs like Chaplain Gresham's and still made it back to the army in time for the final parole. These men received furloughs in January up to early February 1865, went to homes as far away as west Alabama, and yet returned in time to be with the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

Since Chaplain Gresham's home almost certainly was behind Federal lines by then, his family might have gone elsewhere to live, staying with relatives or friends in an area still under Confederate control. I would not be surprised to learn that he got a furlough to see about his family's housing and other needs. A visit to an area near the army would make it easier for him to have returned before paroles were issued.

One other minor point: the final rolls don't include men who were wounded at Bentonville. Paroles were issued to these soldiers in Confederate hospitals in the Carolinas. These can also be found in individual service files.

The March/April issue of Civil War Times includes an article by Gregory A. Coco entitled, "'A Priceless Legacy': Examining the Appomattox Paroles".

The article explores how the parole documents were printed and distributed. It also includes a quote from a North Carolinian who left the army without getting a parole. Speaking with a news correspondent from New York in 1865, the man confessed, "They'll be pretty hard on a man round here if they knew he didn't go plum through to the surrender."

The author writes,

The importance of the parole passes cannot be overemphasized. For many ex-Confederates the trip home covered hundreds of miles of territory and many weeks of travel, and at every turn they might encounter Union patrols and be detained. But as one Southerner explained, the certificates "were respected by all pickets and guards as much as they would have been had they been signed by Gen. Grant himself." A. S. Drewry of Purcell's Virginia Battery agreed, saying, "We marched with them [the Northerners], rode with them on the same cars, and had all the same priviledges that our paroles called for...."

Not only did the passes protect against arrest and harrassment on the journey home, if needed they enabled destitute men to obtain rations and transporttation from Federal authorities along the way. The small slips were also proof to citizens of the Southern states that the unarmed soldiers were not deserters.

The author, a park ranger at Gettysburg, points out that these paroles are always signed by either a regimental or company commander. They bear no Federal officer's signature, at least not when issued. If used for transportation, the reverse may have an oval government stamp and signature of a Federal officer.

Paroles issued by any Federal military authority were universally accepted for transportation and rations. I recently came across a pension application of an Alabama soldier who surrendered with Johnston's army. After returning home to west Alabama, he learned that his brother was still in the Carolinas, sick in a hospital. The paroled soldier went to a Federal officer, submitting it for transportation back to the Carolinas. Having not used it on the way home, he believed it still entitled him to a pass along the rail lines. Apparently the Federal officer doubted his story, but endorsed the parole and returned it to the ex-Confederate. However, he tore off one corner of the parole, saying angrily that he'd recognize this man if ever he saw him again. Years later, the veteran offered his parole with the torn corner to the state pension board as final proof of faithful Confederate military service. A copy appears in his pension file.

Gen. John B. Gordon later said of his veterans,

They carefully preserved their paroles, and were as proud of them as a young graduate is of his diploma, because these strips of paper furnished official proof of the fact that they were in the fight to the last. This fact they transmit as a priceless legacy to their children.