Homer, Do you have any information on a James A. Parker? James married Catherine Elizabeth Anglin in Barbour County 17 Dec 1848. He was in Macon County when he joined Capt. R. F. Ligon's Co F 12th Alabama Infantry 12 June 1861. According to his widow's pension application, James died 22 June 1892. It did not give a place of death or a place of burial. An interesting article in Yours, Mine and Theirs by Ben Roberts of the Chilton County, Alabama Historical Society (page 154) is about James A. Parker.........A Confederate soldier enters the service in 1861 returns in 1883 - captured and imprisoned-prostrated, blind and insane- returns to his family after an absence of twenty-one years! According to this account, James A. Parker was captured in 1865 and taken to Point Lookout Prison, Maryland. It was here that he attempted to escape but one of the prison sentinels knocked him to the ground by striking him over the head, with the butt of his gun. James managed to get the gun and tried to shoot the sentinel but the pistol failed. He was sentenced to three years in a northern penitentiary "on an island near Canada".There he was placed in a perfect dungeon and the darkness and closeness of the confinement finally rendered him a paralytic, almost blind and completely helpless. He spent five years in this prison, two years longer than he was sentenced for. From there he was sent to a home for invalid paupers situated near Staunton, Virginia. He spent seven years in this home (hospital?). After he left the home (hospital?), he worked as a gardener at Yorktown and at Gordonsville, VA. For the next three years, his health and eyesight gradually returned and he decided to return to Alabama. In your cemetery surveys, have you discovered a grave for James A. Parker? Do you have any suggestions as how I might check this story out........to really see if he was a prisoner at Point Look Out........learning the name of the other prison "on an island near Canada", and also the home/hospital near Staunton, VA. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Eugenia