With the help of footnote.com I believe I may have found out how my James Hamilton Cummons went from Confederate to Yankee. I know that James was born in Guilford County, NC. I know that he ended up in Cabell County West Virginia. I know he ended up in the US Volunteer Infantry. Using those markers, I believe the muster rolls and other files I uncovered tell the whole story of James. I hope it's okay to put these up on my blog. I couldn't find anything on footnote that said I couldn't, but if you konw otherwise, let me know!
In case you can't read the images, I'll summarize:
James went to Virginia and enlisted with the NC 54th Infantry on July 1, 1863 (which if I'm not mistaken coincides with Gettysburg). On November 7, 1863, James was taken as prisoner of war at the battle of Rappahannock Station, and transported to a prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland (known as possibly the harshest prison camp in the union.) Just two months later, in January of 1864, James swore allegience to the union, and was enlisted in the 1st US Volunteer Infantry. Later, I will post a little bit of the historic details of Rappahannock Station, Point Lookout, and the 1st US Volunteer infantry.
Uncovering all of this, is making James really come to life for me. I mean, when all of this took place, he was no more than 17 years old! I can't imagine facing the horrors of war, and prison camp at such a young age! And then, according to that old newspaper clipping, James never went home after the war. I wonder where he was the four years before he met Causby? There is still so much to uncover, I just hope the trail doesn't run cold anytime soon!
Congratulations on your find. I discovered your blog and wanted to let you know that I put a link to it on the NCGenWeb site on our NCGenWeb 2.0 page at http://www.ncgenweb.us/nc-genealogy-2-0. I'm an avid blogger and like to try to promote all of us NC bloggers out there :-) I've also added you to my feed reader so i can keep up with your posts.
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