Squad No. 10

     Throughout the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, I've been researching my soldier ancestors.  There are a few men in my family tree who were of the right age to fight, but for whom I have not found any record of service.   One of those men is David Jefferson Witt, born 1833 in Abbeville, South Carolina.

     In 1864, David would have been a 31 year old farmer with a wife and three sons.  Given his age, if he didn't volunteer, he would have been conscripted unless he could afford to buy a substitute.  Considering that in the 1860 census he was listed as an "overseer," I doubt that he could afford to do so.  David never reported a physical or mental disability on any census record, so I just don't think he avoided joining the war.  Considering this, I occasionally search for evidence of his service.

     Today, I ran a search for David in the newspapers of Chronicling America.  I came up with an interesting, but confusing result from 1865:

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     I'm pretty sure that the David J Witt mentioned is my guy.  But what is Squad No. 10 of the Supporting Forces?  Is this a local militia?  I'm going to have to put in some time and research what David was up to.