Gerri --

No apologies necessary. Wouldn't it be nice if whoever wrote the family history would leave notes about the source of the information? I guess nobody would be interested --

There's no comprehensive POW list. Imagine the last scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" -- the camera pans back so we get some idea of how many items are in storage at the National Archives or some other government warehouse. That scene gives us some idea of how large the Confederate POW record collection might be. You could hire a diligent person full time to search for a full year and still fail to locate the right data.

That's the bad news. The good news is that a century ago the War Department put dozens of clerks to work on this project. It took a number of years to complete, but they filed copies of all POW records in Confederate service files. Another set of clerks worked through muster rolls, and another through hospital registers &c. until almost all the records were processed.

Considering all the records necessary to process, I don't think they did a half-bad job.

Now all you have to do is identify and locate the right service file. Hopefully we can help with that. And thanks for using the message board service for service file copies!