Hi, Linda,
This is indeed very interesting information.
I believe the name Wiley Dunn has turned up in my research before. It rings a bell, at any rate. I will review my notes more closely to see if I can determine exactly what the connection to James Cavender was. I don't recall having seen any of the other names you mentioned, including Feilding Price. Perhaps the "unassigned" status of Dunn might have put him in contact with "civilian" James Cavender sometime before Cavender's death.
I have, as do most of us, ancestors who fought on both sides during the Civil War; their military records have made most of them fairly easy to track. James Cavender's civilian status (at least according to the Union records) and his early and sudden demise right in the beginnings of the hostilities in the White County area, makes it hard to dig out any information except the obviously slanted Union Army's version of the truth. Maybe the fledgling Provost Marshal unit cut it's teeth on him.
I think my best bet to find where James Cavender was laid to rest lies with your earlier suggestion ... the White County Historical Society. I'm going to contact them and hope for the best.
Thank you again, Linda. I appreciate your willingness to go the extra mile and share what you can with me. It would really be quite wonderful if the "Wiley Dunn" clue turned up something. We many Cavender descendants, you see, have searched for such a long, long time to find where he is buried, and in our minds is always the fear that he was put in a mass grave somewhere, perhaps unremembered and unrecorded.
Katy Knight