Glynda, good luck in your efforts to get to the bottom of this. We've heard from other AOL users who are also making inquiries about this situation. What we're telling them is that as an interim measure we'll do lookups and email the information to them, until they can get back to our site and browse to their hearts' content. As a result, we're pretty swamped with lookup requests, so we're taking a little longer to respond than we used to. But Edward, Jeri and I are bound and determined to make our extensive research of the past 25 years available for free to any and all. When we started our project, we agreed among ourselves that we would never, ever, under any circumstances, charge people anything for their ancestors' Civil War records which we have compiled, nor allow anyone else to charge for the information we post on our webpage. That apparently doesn't sit too well with some sites that do charge for this type of information. I hope you will be able to visit the Edward Gerdes Arkansas Civil War Homepage again, real soon. We're continuing to research and post additional regiments, and will soon be branching out to include some Louisiana regiments that recruited large numbers of Arkansans.

Thanks Bryan ~ I emailed AOL and will hopefully find out whats happening here. I'm not sure I'll get any plausible explanation from them; or even hear from them for that matter, but if/when I do, I'll let you know the reasons they give me. I've tried for past month to access the site so its probably true thats what happened to me is because of AOL. And I just dropped my other longtime local provider whom I've been with for five years! YIKES!! Again know that I appreciate all you and others connected with Civil War Lists at Rootsweb do to help us out.Glynda Ellman

Glynda, the Edward Gerdes Arkansas Civil War Homepage is alive and well and still at the URL below. What I am hearing is that AOL has blocked access to this and other free-lookup civil war and genealogy sites by AOL subscribers. I don't know the circumstances behind all this, but AOL users are the only ones unable to access the site. I understand you can access the site if you use another web browser.

HELP ~ Trying to locate the Edward Gerdes Civil War site to link to since I refer to it often in my research. Have tried locating it though various other AR sites to no avail. Would like to have the URL for this. Many Thanks! Glynda/Texas

Glynda, as you know, the Edward Gerdes Arkansas Civil War Homepage consists of four categories of information. The majority of the site consists of Arkansas regimental rosters and 30,000-40,000 individual Arkansas Civil War service records which Edward Gerdes and I have transcribed directly from NARA microfilms over the past 25 years. The second category consists of wartime letters, newspaper articles and other documents transcribed by Edward and me, or donated to the website by others. The third category is a burial database of thousands of Arkansas Civil War soldiers, and soldiers from other states who are buried in Arkansas. This is a database we put together from our own research, and from information donated to us by many, many other researchers. The fourth category consists of links to other similar Civil War sites. We personally visit each Civil War website before we post the link on our page. These links take researchers to Confederate and Union regimental histories, service records of soldiers who served in other states, Native-American and African-American Civil War sites, etc. There is absolutely nothing objectionable on our webpage.

The rumor we hear is that websites that charge genealogical researchers hefty fees for the information that we provide to researchers for free have complained that our site undercuts their profit margins. Whether these are the people who complained to AOL or not, I have no idea. For what it's worth, some of the Civil War National Military Parks of the National Park Service tell us that they have our webpage set up as a "hot link" that visitors to the battlefields can access to learn more about their ancestors' service in a particular battle. I doubt they would do this if our site contained objectionable material.

We certainly don't want to get into a legal battle with AOL. We are simply three private citizens who love doing Civil War research and answering inquiries about the material we post, and who decided to share our research with like-minded individuals for free. We charge nothing, we accept no advertising. I'm sorry AOL subscribers can't visit our page and freely research their own ancestors' Civil War service records, but there's nothing we can do about it other than to do lookups from our webpage for AOL subscribers who ask us to. Since we're getting a lot of those requests right now, please be patient if we can't respond as quickly as we would like.

BRYAN, and OTHERS using AOL ~ The reason we cannot access the Edward Gerdes AR. Civil War site is it was reported to AOL by what group, organization, individual? they don't say, but the database is being blocked by our provider, AOL. Therefore accessing these sites becomes impossible so the step I was recommended in taking is going through a process using Parental Controls. (I thought a Parental block was set up for children and teens 13-15 and I'm definitely not in this category). Anyway, after completing this process, the website address or URL will go to an AOL panel for them to review and decide whether we AOL users can have access to the Gerdes database. Since I'd already printed out so many of the regiments and names of the soldiers I'm researching before all this happened, I'm more fortunate than most. Just think, at the present time many first-time users (on AOL) who are researching their Arkansas ancestors will not have access to this Civil War website. For me, Edward, Jeri and Bryan Howerton's joint Ar. projects has been quite invaluable. The information is so comprehensive on Ar. and I'm quite certain other researchers have benefited greatly in Ar. research from these fine folks' efforts. What a pity and for the life of me I cannot think of anything objectionable Edward has on his pages, even for a 4-year-old. I must be getting cranky in my middle age! GLYNDA ELLMAN/TX.

Glynda, your James Ford enlisted in the "Colville Guards", Co. G, 15th (Northwest) Arkansas Infantry, at Bentonville, Arkansas, on October 15, 1861. The 15th Northwest Arkansas was captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863; was exchanged back in Arkansas; was consolidated with other other depleted regiments in 1864, and ceased to exist as a separate organization.

There was a man named James Ford who was paroled when the Confederate Army of Tennessee surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865. There's no way of telling for sure, but I suspect this may be a different man from your James Ford. Your ancestor's regiment did not exist by 1865, and never got any further east than Mississippi. There was a Pvt. James Ford of Co. K, 24th Arkansas Infantry, whose regiment surrendered at Greensboro, and his parole card may have gotten mixed in with your James Ford's record. However, if the man paroled at Greensboro was your James Ford, he was no longer attached to the 15th Northwest Arkansas Regiment, which as I said did not exist at the time. I hope you can make sense out of this convoluted answer.

BRYAN ~ I too am not taking on AOL and was only having great frustration over my inability to access Gerdes Homepage. Thanks for your input as to my problem & letting me vent some so I didn't split my spleen. I appreciate it greatly and now for a question on my 15th (NW)AR. Infantry CSA ancestor. James Ford enlisted in Bentonville 31, Oct. 1861 in McRae's Regt., Co. F, Capt. Richards Co. (Colville Guards). On Edward's site, and I cannot tell you where, it states a James Ford was pardoned 28 Feb. 1865 at Greensboro, N.C. Also on this entry was this J. Ford enlisted on same date as mine. I would like to find out where this data came from so I can obtain a copy if possible. And this time I promise to be very patient since I can understand you being swamped there. Again, THANKS! Glynda E.

BRYAN ~ I appreciate your input on N.C. info connected to my AR. Civil War soldier's CSA papers on service in the 15th (NW) AR Inf. Having info that he was paroled in Greensboro had me searching lots of sites on the battles in the Carolinas in Feb. 1865 & which AR. regiments were involved there if this is my James Ford. Did consider the possibilty these papers could be mine since this Ford soldier being paroled also has the same enlistment date as mine. Next I'll do an accounting of other J. Fords enlisted in the 15th. Thought also that after him after being trapped East of the Mississippi River after his regiment's surrender at Vicksburg, he possibly joined up with another AR regiment since he probably couldn't get back home. - Status on my problems w/AOL: I was able briefly to access Edward Gerdes site April 9, however back down again now. Will contact AOL again today because this is totally unacceptable to me as a customer. If they continue to block my access to site will change providers & discontinue using the Sabre Co. through Travelocity, an AOL subsidiary. Since I log in anywhere from 15 to 30,000 air miles yearly, not alot, but big enough to cause a 1 penny less rattle in the old AOL/Time Warner pockets, maybe this will get their attention. Again thanks! Glynda

Any information of the surname of Gammel, or Davis will be appreciated. Thanks Karen