I don't think they came from any particular school, but were just sorta "junior soldiers." I had thought that BMI closed at least temporarily during the war, but after reading the Maverick family letters which were published a couple of years ago, and matching them up with R. T. P. Allen's resignation from the 17th Texas Infantry, now I'm not so sure. They probably just re-focused on younger boys, the older ones having enlisted almost immediately. Earlier this year I was in email/phone correspondence with a historian in Bastrop and we were comparing notes to try to figure out exactly when the Allen family went back to Kentucky.

Anyway, what I would really like to find is a comparable group to Fulcrod's NOT pulled directly out of a military academy, and NOT still under the supervision of a teacher/officer. Were they also assigned to courier or deserter duty? If not, what else did they do? How well were they trained? Did they follow orders, no matter if they didn't like them? Did they desert?

Vicki Betts