Date: 11/2/98 6:20 PM RE: COE, William A. b. 1844 AL USA Sheran, Received your package today. The mail is apparently in working order between here and Custer City. After a little study I was able to decipher the script from the 1890 census. It states "Soldier - W.A. Coe; Rank - private; Company - A; Regiment - 6 US In (Infantry); Date of Enlistment - 17 Mar 1863; Date of Discharge - 15 Mar 1866; Length of Service - 0 Yrs., 11 Mos., 28 Days." You are correct. The March 17, 1863, is clear. But it must be a mistake. The discharge date of March 15, 1866, is equally clear. A March 1865 enlistment date would match with the "11 Mos., 28 Days" length of service. >From service records its clear that William A. Coe of Alabama joined the Union Army in 1865 in Columbus, OH. I'm more convinced than ever that the William A. Coe of Columbia, AL, and your William A. Coe of Henderson County, TX, are one and the same person. I'm a little confused as to the branch of US service to which he was attached. Federal Rolls of Prisoners of War indicate that he joined the Union while in prison at Camp Chase and was transferred to "Naval Rendezvous," Chicago, IL, March 20, 1865. The census entry indicates that he was in the infantry. If it was known that he had switched sides and joined the Union, I doubt that things were very comfortable for him back home in Alabama. That may be one reason for his removal to Texas. He obviously left Alabama some time after 1870 and was in Henderson County, TX, by Oct. 27, 1879, when he married Susan Litchfield. Do you know in which county the Litchfields lived in Alabama? Is it possible that they knew each other before moving to Henderson County, TX? Did you say her parents were Thomas H. and Mahala Jane Litchfield? There was almost twenty years age difference between William and Susan. Not so unusual, but makes me wonder why he did not marry until he was 35. He seems to have kept to himself. And as noted earlier, if he's the Columbia, AL, William A. Coe, he spent time under arrest and in the guard house while serving with "The Mobile Cadets." Perhaps this led to his transfer to the Louisiana Infantry. According to his service records, on March 1, 1864, at Mobile, AL, he was "transferred from 1st Alabama Heavy Artillery" to Company G, 4th Louisiana Infantry, Confederate Army. With that regiment he was captured Dec. 17, 1864, at Franklin, TN. Received at the military prison at Louisville, KY, December 22, he was transferred on to Camp Chase, Columbus, OH, Jan. 2, 1865. From there he signed the Oath of Allegiance to the Federal Government and enlisted for US military service; transferred to Chicago, March 20. Just 16 or 17-years-old when he first joined the Alabama Artillery in February 1861, he was a seasoned veteran by the time the war ended. I will send the request for military records to the National Archives. If we're lucky they'll be able to find a record. If we're real lucky, in his file will be an enlistment form which will include personal information which should prove invaluable. I must admit that I'm not overly optomistic. But let's keep our fingers crossed. Carl Robert Coe