George, Can you look at the muster rolls of the 50th TN and tell me if there were any after December 1862? The military record of Pvt. R.T. Buchanan shows that he deserted on or about Dec. 29, 1862 and there is no further record for him----not anywhere to my knowledge. I understand this regiment consolidated with the 51st and consolidated again later in the War. That probably makes the search even more difficult.

I never found any documentation that R.T. Buchanan signed an Oath, but I do have a photo of him at a Confederate Reunion. His home was near Dover, TN and he may have returned and joined some partisans. His father-in-law served in Co. E, 10 TN Cavalry. They were mustered into the CSA from a partisan "battalion" in Dec. 1862 and fought at the Second Battle of Dover on 3 Feb. 1863.

Joe