Record help

[JacobCSA]

One of my ancestors R J Harris was in the 19th Tennessee Cav (Biffles) also called the 9th. He applied for pension and gives details on his service (pension application:https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGYQ-9ZNL?i=59&cc=1874474) In this pension he even has witnesses from the same company as him attest to his service. The problem is the records for the 19th Cav are not very complete in a sense. There are typically only one or two record slides for each person in this regiment and not only that but one of them is typically the record folder cover. They were unable to find R J Harris's record. There are numerous Harris men in the regiment. Perhaps one of these is his record and the first name initial is incorrect or was from some alias he used (if he used an alias I'm sure he would have mentioned that). I wanted to know if their would be any other records I could look through to find him. With him having witnesses and also attesting to being a CS veteran on the 1910 census a whole year before he applied for pension I don't think he was being dishonest. His name in full was Robert James Harris but he some times put it as James Robert Harris or J R Harris just as he would put it as R J Harris. Any help with either finding his record or a record or at the very least an explanation of what happened to his record would be helpful and much appreciated.

 

[lupaglupa]

The records for Biffle's Cavalry are really messily grouped on Fold3. It makes it hard to find them. It's clear they didn't create many records. But the unit information cards all have pencil notations that the companies of the 19th became companies in the 9th. There are two 9th cavalries from Tennessee but in the one known as Ward's Cavalry there is in Company B a R. J. Harris, also given as Robert J. Basic info - he enlisted September 1, 1862 at Hartsville, was arrested/captured at Cheshire, Ohio and transferred to Camp Chase, and then sent to Camp Douglas. He is said to come from Logan County, Tennessee, was 6 foot 1 inches tall with a fair complexion, brown hair, and black eyes. He was discharged from Camp Douglas May 15, 1865. Does that fit your ancestor?

 

[JacobCSA]

The records for Biffle's Cavalry are really messily grouped on Fold3. It makes it hard to find them. It's clear they didn't create many records. But the unit information cards all have pencil notations that the companies of the 19th became companies in the 9th. There are two 9th cavalries from Tennessee but in the one known as Ward's Cavalry there is in Company B a R. J. Harris, also given as Robert J. Basic info - he enlisted September 1, 1862 at Hartsville, was arrested/captured at Cheshire, Ohio and transferred to Camp Chase, and then sent to Camp Douglas. He is said to come from Logan County, Tennessee, was 6 foot 1 inches tall with a fair complexion, brown hair, and black eyes. He was discharged from Camp Douglas May 15, 1865. Does that fit your ancestor?

The records for Biffle's Cavalry are really messily grouped on Fold3. It makes it hard to find them. It's clear they didn't create many records. But the unit information cards all have pencil notations that the companies of the 19th became companies in the 9th. There are two 9th cavalries from Tennessee but in the one known as Ward's Cavalry there is in Company B a R. J. Harris, also given as Robert J. Basic info - he enlisted September 1, 1862 at Hartsville, was arrested/captured at Cheshire, Ohio and transferred to Camp Chase, and then sent to Camp Douglas. He is said to come from Logan County, Tennessee, was 6 foot 1 inches tall with a fair complexion, brown hair, and black eyes. He was discharged from Camp Douglas May 15, 1865. Does that fit your ancestor?

The pension office also found this record for wards Cav but it wouldn't be his as he was from Williamson County and said the he was in Adkissons Company E of Biffles. He also says he was cut off from his command at hood's return and that he couldn't get back. I don't know when that would be.

 

[lupaglupa]

I think you'll have to do a deep dive on the dates then - when was Biffle's Company founded, when did it merge into the 9th, which companies went where, etc. It could be that your ancestor was there only a very short time.