Patti, The article is fairly accurate except for the comment that he served under Stonewall. No, it was Red Jackson a division commander under Forrest. Ross was his brigade commander at that time. He was not in the Battle of Franklin, per say. His Brigade was doing combat at Murphysboro that day,fixing troops that could have gone to Franklin and made it worse than it was. I feel that Forrest had used the Ross Brigade to spearhead the advance out of Georgia and into Tennessee, and did not want to see then slaughtered at Franklin or Nashville.

He did fight in the Indian Territory, Elkhorn Tavern, both Corinth, Holly Springs Raid, Thompson's Station, in the Vicksburg campaign, the Meridian Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, Hood's Tennessee Campaign. This is normal for the Ross Brigade units, which included the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 27th Cavalries. He probably missed the Battle of Hatchie Bridge, being wounded a day or two before at Corinth and was not paroled until Oct 13, 1862. This was the only POW report in his records.

From my readings, I have not seen that many of Company E were college students, but I would guess that a bunch of his company may have come with him. He is said to be 27 years old in his records and had only a $130 horse, no weapon and no gear. All in all, he is a fantastic soldier. Had all been like him the South might have won. His regiment went from 1000 to 200 at parole. Disease was the biggest killer, but these battles took their toll.