Thank you so much! Like I said, this is all new to me but I am quite infatuated. I just got home from my mother's house looking at some old documents and books she had put away that belonged to my grandmother and other ancestors. I found a story about him in one of the booklets. Initially he was too young to join but ran (rode) away on his horse in the middle of the night in his nightgown and caught up with his older brother John (somewhere in NE Louisiana) who was already in service. His brother talked his commanding officer into letting him stay. He started out as water boy, feeding horses, etc. Since he was initially a "stow away" of sorts, this may explain the absence of military documentation. He stayed with the unit until toward the end of the war when he caught Typhoid fever. His brother and future brother-in-law tied him to his horse and sent him home. He made it (actually the horse did because my GGG grandfather was essentially unconscious) to "Ward's Ferry" which is in LA probably 15 miles south of the AR state line. His horse stopped at the home of an older black couple who actually knew him. He stayed with them a few days until he was well enough to travel and they could get him home. The Louisiana McNeill fits this story this story!