Colorado Citizen, August 31, 1861, September 7, 1861, September 14, 1861; Official Records, series 1, vol. 15, pp. 149, 825, 826, 832, 851, 883-884, 955; Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who Served in Organizations from the State of Texas, National Archives Microfilm Publication No. 323, Service Record of Alfred J. Dockery, Roll 10. Dockery was hospitalized in Columbus on January 10, 1863, then detached to the hospital as an attendant until at least a year later. Bill Winsor, in his Texas in the Confederacy (Hillsboro: Hill Junior College Press, 1978), reports that a surgeon named W. R. Robinson established a hospital in Columbus on October 15, 1862 (see p. 45). Winsor provides no source for his information. There was a physician named William R. Robinson who served in the Confederate army in Texas, but his military record does not mention the Columbus hospital.
    The Confederate government had passed two laws which allowed it to impress slaves for whatever end (see James Muscoe Matthews, ed., The Statutes At Large of the Confederate States of America, Passed at the Third Session of the First Congress; 1863 (Richmond: R. M. Smith, 1863), p. 104; James Muscoe Matthews, ed., The Statutes At Large of the Confederate States of America, Passed at the Fourth Session of the First Congress; 1863-4 (Richmond: R. M. Smith, 1864), pp. 235-236).