I would be glad to, but as you might understand there are several issue involved here.

The owner of the land is pretty particular about people wandering over his land "relic hunting". Second we are working with the State District Archologist Dr. John House and he doesn't expect that there would be any remains at this date due to the acids in the solid and the moist condition of the ground over the years. He seems to think that exhumation would be a waste of time as most likely all you may be able to find may be his teeth.

Dr. House has done extensive archological research of early Native Americans in Arkansas around Arkansas Post, so I presume that he knows what he is talking about more than I. I also am aware that Police Criminal investigation forensic can tell a lot about the grave from soil samples such as what the man's last meal may have been, but that would not put us any nearer to identifing him. And most police labratories do not have the time to do such work unless a criminal case is involved. Which was the case with our Unknown Soldier at Camp White Sulphur Springs. There would be no bullet since according to this letter the bullet passed through. Maybe a button?

According to the letter all personal effects were taken from the body before it was buried so actual identification would be simply based upon the description of the Grave site and the speculation that we have already arrived at. The question is why doesn't W.W.(or M.M.) Cherry's muster roll record, Or who ever he was, not appear in the CSR's? It is clear that 1st Sargeant Stephen's knew the man and that he had many friends in Company "A", and that this man died in the Battle of Jenkins Ferry with Company "A". I have done enough research in the CSR's to know that there are a lot of "black holes" in which soldiers records fall into never to be seen again.

One thing I haven't found is a marriage record of William W. Cherry, it could be that "M.M.J." was his wife's name/intials. If that is the case then we are dealing with a whole different ballgame since the letter is not specific in that detail. In the 1860 Drew County (Monticello) Arkansas census there is a James Cherry whose wife is named Margaret, But I have been able to determine his connect with Basil Cherry. Could the letter be addressed to Mrs Mary Margaret James Cherry? Mrs M.M.J. Cherry?

In any case unless other evidence emerges my best guess is that it was William W. Cherry the older brother of Basil Cherry.