Thanks, Alan. Thomas J. was actually born Thomas J. Stephenson in Putnam Co., Ga. in 1825. After his father, Moore Stephenson died in July, 1849, many of the family changed the "ph" to "v". I have always heard that the most common cause of death back in the WBS was disease rather than the fighting. My mother's great-grandfather, Col. Isaac Neff, was the commanding officer in the defense of the saltmines at Saltville, VA. at the outset of hostilities and died in Nov., 1862 from something they called "camp fever" or something similar. In returning to Thomas J. Stevenson, i found out when on this message board yesterday when I accidentally discovered it that the officer who organized Co. H. of the 4th Ga. Cavalry(Avery's) was an uncle of Thomas J's wife, Sarah Hudson Stevenson. His name was James H. Graham and I suppose that was instrumental in Thomas J. enlisting in Co. H. Also, you mentioned that Thomas J.'s wife signed a death claim after he died. Did that release his body to be buried? He wanted to be buried( we have a copy of his last letter to Sarah before he died)back in Coweta Co., but that would seem unlikely with circumstances they way they were at the time. There is a monument in the Confederate cemetery in Chattanooga erected to the memory of the fallen members of the 4th GA. Cavalry that has his name on it, so that seems to indicate that he buried there. There is a family cemetery in Coweta, but nobody knows where it is anymore. By the way, four of five of Thomas J.'s brothers fought for the cause, also. Only Benjamin Franklin Stephenson did not, having died in a typhoid outbreak around 1858 along with his wife and three oldest children. Three of the brothers were in Georgia units, one was in a Texas unit. The youngest, Joseph W. Stevenson, was a doctor, was captured at Gettysburg on the second day of fighting, and spent the next year and a half in Johnson's Island POW camp in Ohio. He was sent over to the James River Wharf, VA and paroled to come home. He lived in Sumter Co., GA the rest of his life, dying in 1895. He mustered out of service as a second lieutenant. Patrick Smith P.S I just looked at the old letter from Thomas J. to Sarah and the date was 6apr1863. Looks like he died six days later.