Eleven Dollars a Month

Today when someone is discharged from military service they receive a DD 214. You know the name of the form if you were in the service or like me involved in making funeral arrangements for someone who was.

When my Dad died in 2001 I had to send a copy of his DD214 from 1960 to the office at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida to arrange for the Military Honor Guard at his funeral. Thankfully he left a copy with his papers in the safety deposit box, I suppose knowing it would be needed.

Back in 1862 the Confederate Army just used a payment ledger to handle discharges. This is the form that was filled out on September 21, 1862 when my great great grandfather Joseph Ruel Rowell was discharged from the 2nd Regiment, Florida Infantry Battalion. He enlisted on July 13, 1861 in Jacksonville, Florida. When he was discharged in 1862 it was because he was over 35 years of age, considered too old at that time for the military.

The Southern Army soon discovered they needed everyone, not just the young so they started taking the old men. Joseph Rowell only stayed home a few months. He enlisted again on March 5, 1863 in the 11th Regiment, Florida Infantry and served until the end of the war. He was at Appomattox Court House when General Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865.

This discharge statement showed that as a Private in the Confederate Army he was paid eleven dollars a month, with a separate allotment for clothing and rations.

He went back home to Shady Grove in Taylor County Florida after the war. My great grandfather Seth had been born there in 1858. Joseph Rowell died in 1896 and was buried in the Fellowship Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Madison County Florida.