Thanks, Alan, good to see your name again - and to have your help and suggestions. I do have the military record of Martin Van Buren Shaw and it was quite awhile - before I realized it had something also about his having joined the U. S. forces.

I wish he had kept a diary. I have a lengthy newspaper clipping about an old Union soldier in Cherokee Co. TX who gave a party for old veterans - and among the names listed as guests were Mr. and Mrs. M. V. Shaw! Let by-gones be by-gones!