I've been picking and plodding along for several years looking up the History of the 8th Alabama as well. Unfortunately Iv'e not been able to get everything together as of yet due to health. moving and having to store things where I cannot access them. As far as Col Herbert, other than a few typical tall tales that almost everyone who wrote memoirs back then threw in. I feel he was a pretty upright guy. A good portion of his writing had to be second hand as he missed a lot of action in the Summer of 62 because of being a POW, then of course was pretty much taken out of the war after his wounding at the Wilderness.
As far as him personally knowing every member of the regiment I will weigh in that he would not have. As an officer, especially after he attained field grade, his contact with the men on an individual basis would have been minimal. The vast majority of his personal dealings would have been with his immediate superiors (Brigade) and immediate juniors ( regt staff and Company Officers). He would have not been eating and sleeping right next to Privates and chatting them up around the camp fire, of course during inspections, disciplinary actions and dress parade he would have had short, mostly professional interactions with the men.
As far as relics of the 8th. there are a few items that may be in existence that intrigue me. The first is one of the Regiment's flags that was sent to Gov. Watts for safekeeping when the unit was issued a new one in the winter of 63/64. There was a letter addressed to Gov Watts that was presented to him along with the flag, and a return letter from him. It would be interesting to know what became of this flag. It was also rumored that instead of surrendering it, the 8th's flag was ripped up and divided among the men at Apomattox. With that same flag were two battle streamers with the 8th's honors on them. Col Herbert recalled that he came into possession of them after the war, but there is no trace of the remnants of that flag or the streamers. The Last relic would be the sword of one of the 8th's officers picked up from the field by a (Vermont?) soldier at the Wilderness. I do not have the papers in front of me but I think it was Major Duke Nall's Sword. There is a set of letters from the descendant of the Vermont Soldier and the Alabama archives concerning he sword in the early 1900s.

As far as Josiah, I have found it to be a pretty usual trend that the names that men were mustered under sometimes did not match what they were known by. A perfect example would be a pensioner/Veteran who was known as Lum Smith not being found on a regimental roster, but a C. Smith being listed. The C. Smith would actually have been Cumberland Smith,,,, known to his family as "Uncle Lum"
By the way I have a list of a little over 200 gravesites of he 8th collected. If you are interested let me know,