The frustrations...

Jamieva

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Feb 7, 2006
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Midlothian, VA
Of tryingdrafted into the 14th VA for 64/65. I can find his 14th VA records in Fold 3. The 30th VA stuff? Nowhere to be found. Also adding to the oddity of this is his gravestone only lists the 14th VA on it, and from what was told down through the family the 14th VA service was mentioned. Never the 30th VA.

Ideas? Or am I stuck?
 
Have you looked in the Miscellaneous cards? Is this the man you are looking for? Born @1840?
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Have you looked in the Miscellaneous cards? What's the name you are looking for?


Well that's the thing he loved to changed the use/spelling of his name. So in the records of the 14th VA he's listed as A M Houston. Archer Houston was the name on his tombstone. There is also indication his name may have been Archibald. It's exhausting. He used A M Houston mostly, even listed his name that way on the pension request.
 
OK. I checked back and forth using Fold3 and Civil War Data. I got nothing. If he served as he described, that would not have been a short time - they weren't in North Carolina until 1864. I can see why you are so frustrated!

Two possibilities come to mind - 1) he served under another name for some reason (age, family objections, etc.) or, 2) he's lying.

Wish I had found something better!
 
Its a mystery wrapped in an enigma. I guess my one main question is with the Confederacy scraping for able bodied men to tote a weapon, would they wait until February 1864 to draft someone that is 23 or 24 years old?
 
Its a mystery wrapped in an enigma. I guess my one main question is with the Confederacy scraping for able bodied men to tote a weapon, would they wait until February 1864 to draft someone that is 23 or 24 years old?
Yeah, it seems unlikely he was at home all that time. There are a bunch of Houstons in Co. H - have you accounted for all of them? All coming from the same county and fighting in the same unit, I assume they are kin somehow.
 
Are there rosters of the 30th VA that you could check whether he's listed there?
The original May 1861 Muster Roll of H "Sparta Grays" and other Caroline County companies are in A history of Caroline County, Virginia from its formation in 1727 to 1924 but there is no A M Houston included on the original rolls and no cards for him that I can find either in the 30th Virginia or the Miscellaneous cards. Here's a link to the book
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