Good points and I am afraid I have no answer except my uncle, James A. Pittman 3rd Miss Inf. Regt., did take the oath on the date and under the orders you mention. I see nothing where he is allowed transportation to any point in Mississippi.

Here is the story I have -----

Descendants of Captain Thomas Pittman, Sr., by James Calvin "J.C." Pittman, Sr., published privately, 1989; used with permission. The James A. Pittman family is outlined on page 73-75. "The following story was told of James A. Pittman by Janie Elizabeth Pittman Mullins as told to her by her grandmother Julia Ann Lott Pittman:
"James (called Jimmy) got his nose shut off and his face was horribly disfigured during the Civil War. He walked home after the peace was signed. It took him three years and he was ragged, lice infested, long hair, long beard, filthy and very thin. One day Granpa Billy (William Pittman) was in the back chopping wood and the children were playing in the yard. Grandma Julie (Julia Ann Lott Pittman) was sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair sewing on a quilt when a horribly disfigured dirty begger-looking man approached the front picket-fence. When Grandma Julia looked up and saw him she got frightened and jumped up to run. The man called to her saying, "It's me Jimmy." She then started running to the gate, with joy to see him when he told her not too, that he wasn't fit for women folk. He then saw Grandpa Billy (William Pittman) in the backyard and told Grandma Julia to send one of the children to the back to tell "Billy to bring me a full changing of clothes, the sheep shears, and a gourd of lye soap down to the creek." James then started to walk on to the creek but turned back and asked Grandma Julia if she could fix him a little something to eat that he was hungry as all he'd eaten was what he could catch with his hands."

GP