Steve Mayeux,
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Three of the four men you mentioned are listed in my book. ..Below are the entries of the 3 in my 150-page Name Index.
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NEAL, Christopher C., 1832 MO-Mar 2, 1863 Ft DeRussy, Avoyelle Parish LA; m-Rhoda; 1860 Hunt Co TX cen p299; Burnet's 1st TX Sharp Shooter's Battn (Lt, Hunt Co, TST), A-154
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PRATT, Wade H., 1819 KY-Mar 5, 1863 Ft DeRussy, Avoyelle Parish LA; m-Harriett; 1860 Hunt Co TX cen p292; Burnet's 1st TX Sharp Shooter's Battn (Hunt Co, TST), A-153
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PRATT, Wm. T., 1824 KY-Mar 3, 1863 Ft DeRussy, Avoyelle Parish LA; m-Lucinda; 1860 Hunt Co TX cen p290; Burnet's 1st TX Sharp Shooter's Battn (Hunt Co, TST), A-153
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spelling. ......Burnet vs. Burnett
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Major James Burnet commanded the 1st Texas Sharpshooters Battalion.
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I've sent this correction to the Sailors and Soldiers database website, >>http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm<<, several times, with no acknowlegement. ..Interesting that the database website >>http://www.civilwardata.com/active/pers_dir.html<< has this "James Burnet's" name spelled correctly.
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Patti, prochette@Juno.com
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Quoting Steve Mayeux:
In February-March 1863, while stationed at Fort DeRussy on the Red River, Burnett's First Texas Sharpshooters Bn. lost several men in several days at the hospital in Marksville, La. (Rufus Gleason, 2/28; Christopher Neal, 3/2; Wm. Pratt, 3/3; and Wade Pratt (William's brother), 3/5) Obviously, there was some kind of epidemic at the fort at that time. There was smallpox there in January in a Tennessee company, so maybe it was smallpox.
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The only way I know about these men is from descendants who have told me about them over the years. I would suspect that there were a lot more - the coffin-maker at the hospital where they died said he was going there every day for a while. Is there any 1st Tex SS Bn expert out there who would be able to give me more information on how many men from this unit died in that February-March 1863 time frame? I would think the only way to gather this information would be to go through all the CSRs of the men in the unit.

Oh, and the SS Bn. thing was not my idea. Not sure if it's someone's idea of a joke or not, but when Rufus Gleason recently got a VA marker placed in the Fort DeRussy cemetery, that's how his tombstone was engraved.