This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: rtknight Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.arkansas.counties.saline/337.3/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Great to see this posts take off so much lately. Lots of good information posted. Just a few observations. The 11/17th Arkansas Infantry was partially mounted while at Port Hudson. The part that was mounted was outside the fort when it was surrounded and captured. The non-mounted men were part of the surrender. I'm sure there were many orphaned children in that area of Arkansas at the time as fathers never came home and mothers died of desease, starvation, etc. It could very well be that the children listed with Emmaline Cobb Rowland could be family members who had lost theie parents and she took in to raise as her own. A couple of months ago I wrote a short history of Jeremiah Rowland for some family members. I copied it and will post it here incase someone wants to read it. It is from the best information i have in my files, but may not be exactly correct. Granny's great grandfather was named Jeremiah Rowland. He was born in 1835 in Alabama, according to census records. On January 3, 1856 he married Sarah Emmaline Cobb in Dekalb Township, Saline (now Grant) County, Arkansas. On May 25, 1857 Emmaline gave birth to a little girl, LeeAnn S Rowland. in 1859 they had a baby boy, William, and in 1862 another boy, James. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Jeremiah was able to stay home on his farm for the first two years, but then things changed... According to the book I am reading this week, "Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi" in December of 1862 Major General Franklin "Gardner ordered five officers from each depleted regiment to return to their local communities in search of deserters and new recruits." The local community of the 11th Arkansas Infantry regiment, Company A, was the town of Benton, Saline County, Arkansas. On January 1, 1863 Jeremiah Rowland was enlisted in that company and shortly after set out for Port Hudson with the other new recruits to join their regiment. Life at Port Hudson was pretty rough. Pour rations and bad sanitary conditions led one private to write home " I have been living almost like a dog for the last six weeks... in truth I have been almost starved." Tennessee Lieutinant R. B. Crockett wrote his cousin " We are living in a swamp and drinking water out of a Mud hole." The region experienced the coldest weather it had seen in twenty-five years. In the midst of all this Jeremiah became ill and reported to the base hospital. On March 8, 1863, barely over two months in the Confederate Army, 28 year old Jeremiah Rowland passed away, leaving a wife and three young children at home. The book describes a funeral that took place about this same time at the post. " a rough pine coffin drawn in a mule team, and followed by eight men and a corporal, with reverse arms, and perhaps some half dozen men who knew and loved the man whose remains are to be commited to the earth... Quietly and silently the firing party fall into line by the side of the grave - the coffin is laid before them - arms are presented as a token of respect, the necessary command to load at will, is given; three vollies are fired and the comrades of the deceased shoulder arms and with rapid steps march back to their encampment." Jeremiah Rowland was buried in an unmarked grave somwhere on the grounds of Port Hudson. To my knowledge Sarah Emmaline Cobb Rowland never remarried, although I believe she had a couple of more children living with her on later census record. LeeAnn Rowland married Frank Weaver and was the mother of Laura Emmaline Weaver, who married Barlow Martin and was the mother of our own Dessie Martin Knight. RTK Ray Knight Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.