I have copies of my gg-grandfather's letters to his wife Lucinda Hopkins Hanson from 1862, just two months before he died at Chattanooga. In those letters he mentioned many names of people he had come into contact with during that period of his service, about 11-12 people in all. No one in my family ever knew who the people mentioned in his letters were, and then I began researching: they were his cousins and in-laws and in one case a family friend. I have been able to identify all but one person he mentioned in his letters to Lucinda. I'm pretty sure the only unidentied Redd Hanson was related but I do not know how. Someone out there in the netherspace of email will appreciate your transcription of that small diary and maybe be able to identify a relative or two thanks to your interest. We never know when our own personal interest and reserch will someday prove beneficial to someone else in their family research, so please keep sharing information even when you don't know any individual you have discovered is or where that person came from. Thanks to the technology at hand these days, someone will connect eventually and you will never know the enormouse favor you have done. May you all have a "happy dance" of discovery. Harriet **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)