Source: Confederate Veteran, Vol II, December 1894, No. 12, page 357 Thomas M. Murfree, Troy, Ala: "I write in behalf of the widows of two of our Confederate comrades, who never returned from the front during our struggle for Southern Independence. William Simmons, of the Fifth Alabama Infantry Regiment, Rhode's old brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, died of sickness at either Brandy or Guiney Station early in 1863; and Joseph R. Byrd, of the Forty-second Alabama Regiment, is supposed to have been killed at the battle of Chickamauga. The widows of these comrades are justly entitled to pensions under the Indian War Pension Act of 1892, but their claims cannot be made complete without proof of death. The survivors of the Fifth and Forty-second Alabama Regiments are requested to cooperate in procuring the evidence of death of these men, and thereby confer quite a favor upon the aged widows, one of whom (Mrs. Simmons) is totally blind."