Steve--this is all so very interesting! Thanks for answering the questions, and for shedding more light on exactly what it is you are doing. So, am I to understand that all of the men you are marking are in one cemetery? Please explain to us how the gentlemen were able to identify these guys as having died and been buried here. Did they find hospital records, or other types of records? How, specifically, did they identify James John as being in that mass grave? I think something we all fail to realize is that there are a lot of Civil War records that have never seen the light of day; they are not accessible to anyone who doesn't go to where they are and read through them page by page. I discovered that one of the CSA surgeons who was in charge of an Atlanta hospital where one of my men died left papers and records from the hospital that are now, somehow, in the LBJ History Center in Austin! I plan to have a look at them eventually, and see if I can find out anything about my Cavalrymen. By the way, the Confederate Research Center at Hillsboro has a burial project; they have about 18,000 soldiers' names in their data base now (in a card file, not on computer). You might consider submitting your names for their project--they want names, dates, state of service regiment name and number, death date and burial place. I'm sure it will eventually be computerized, but it will take a change of personnel there, probably. There was a couple who were researching the names when I was there last time, they're working on a book of CSA officers buried in Texas. Thanks again, Steve, for giving us guidance on honoring our military ancestors by marking their final resting places! Karen On Tuesday, April 13, 2004, at 02:00 PM, BARRETT-REUBEN-SC-D-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > My gggrandfather and two of his brothers served in the 21st MS > Infantry, > Co., G. My gggrandfather and one brother survived the War of Northern > Aggression, but the youngest, 17-year old James John Mitchell died > shortly > after enlistment in June 1861. Any knowledge of his demise and burial > location was unknown to the family for the last 142 years until > recently. > The three brothers marched to Manassas, VA to join up with Lee's > Northern > Virginia Army. James John was ordered to picket duty at Sinclair's > Ford and > Black Ford on the Occoquan River until he developed camp fever and > died at > the General Hospital at Leesburg during the night of November 11, > 1861. His > body was placed in a mass grave in Union Cemetery, Leesburg, VA