Below is a page out of his records:
This is interesting for a couple of reasons, first is that he was detailed to collect cattle in June of '63--a little over six months before the Cow Cavalry, as such, was even purposed. The thing to bring out here is that even before the formation of the Cow Cavalry, there were men who faithfully supplied beef to the Confederacy, even if they were not strictly military. (Capt. Hendry was one of those men.)
The second interesting thing is that while detailed for cattle collection, Ellis was still on the 3rd Florida Inf, Co. C payroll as a Private. It got me wondering if once the Cow Cavalry was formed he was taken off that payroll...and if that is when he got promoted to Sergeant!
Well, that was where that rabbit trail took me. However, I did manage to get 10 AE comps in the queue (rendering as I type).
It's coming along...slow and steady.