We disagree on a couple of points. You wrote,

I would like to point out something to those who accused me of besmirching the reputation the colonel without proofs. I only wondered why he did not take the time to read his own writings before publishing it. There are other ways to describe a man who misses roll call after a battle. You can call him missing. AWOL has a connotation of cowardly behavior and/or outright desertion. Armies do not give medals to a soldier for being AWOL, but they do for men who are wounded in battle in the service of his country. Josiah was wounded twice, and was remembered by Hebert, in writing, only for being AWOL on both occasions.

Since you could not produce Col Herbert's summary of your ancestor's service file, I cited the record for your ancestor word for word. It follows the military service file closely, and neither one mentions AWOL once. This is the proof you mentioned. If you ever locate a document that shows your ancestor as AWOL, please call my attention to it.

For the record, Confederate military regulations required the orderly sergeant to note soldiers absent without cause as AWOL. The record submitted to the War Department could not be altered at a later date. For that reason, if a soldier's service file reports him AWOL, it's highly improper to remove or leave that out. Whether or not the statement is accurate is up to a researcher to determine. The record should stand as recorded by the Orderly Sergeant, as anyone in military service should recognize.

More on your other points in another post --