Hello Lynn, I had my suspicions when I saw the tombstone and almost said something as it looked very new however it was not an In Memory of tombstone that indicates no body but rather a government issued tombstone that indicates a body is at rest under the stone and with his death date being almost a year after Chickamauga I thought it might have been plausible that somehow he made it back to Texas or relatives might have brought his body back to Texas after the war. Now that we know the truth perhaps we can continue the search in Georgia.

My question is do you believe his death date is correct? And from what source are you using? Confederate Doctor Stout would have been in charge of the Georgia hospitals at this time period after Chickamauga and after. He kept great records, however when he died his family sold his huge collection to various educational institutions and some to private collectors. Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Texas at Austin hold the majority of his records at this time. Knowing where he was a patient at prior to his death might reveal where he was buried at.

A rather large Confederate hospital was east of Atlanta, Georgia known as Emory at Oxford near Covington, Georgia. This hospital moved in August of 1864 due to Sherman's activity near Atlanta. Although it's subjective the hospital seems to have been divided up into three hospitals known as the Hill; Hood; and Lumpkin hospitals in southwest Cuthbert, Georgia. However, I don't think he died there as the majority of their expired patients are accounted for.

Another large Confederate hospital was the Ocmulgee at Macon, Georgia however, they too moved some of their patients due to Sherman's Army near Atlanta. With the shelling of Atlanta by Sherman in August 1864 I rather doubt if he would have been there. I do recall seeing somewhere that a hospital for Arkansas and Texas troops was located at Fort Gaines, Georgia during this time period and I do remember at least one of their patients from Arkansas as being wounded at Chickamauga.

He likely has an unmarked grave however shortly after the war some local Southern women in various locations did visit the graves and wrote down information on their wooden headboards and sometimes passed on their information to newspapers so their families would know what had become of them. From my experience the information on the wooden headboards lasted for about five years depending of course upon the conditions of the area. Again in my opinion less the 50% of WBTS information is not listed online giving you a small window of opportunity.

I have looked at the Stout collection at Emory but its been a while. If you would call the library at Emory just ask for the Doctor Stout collection and they should know what you're talking about. Don't give up the search as sometimes it takes years but if you stick with it you may find your answers. Good Luck, Dennis