Tom --

It looks as if someone replaced an older marker with one from the VA. Ordinarily men at Camp of Instruction were assigned to front-line units -- perhaps the person who responsible for placing the VA marker couldn't locate this man's proper unit.

The internet is a wonderful tool, but it's not perfect. Sometimes what we find on the internet is misleading, out of date or just flat-out wrong. Sometimes we aren't able to distinguish between good information and bad on the web, and other times that wonderful URL we found some time back is no longer in service.

In any case, I advise one and all to get a second opinion somewhere other than the internet. Even if a comfortable answer to our question de jour can be found on the internet, it's a good rule of thumb to check it out against a different source. Yes, that's right -- you may need to visit a good research library.

Here's my post on the Alabama board for your Camp of Instruction question --

http://history-sites.com/mb/cw/alcwmb/index.cgi?noframes;read=25291

At least one of these camps existed in every Confederate state. Gov. Brown proposed the following sites for camps in Georgia --

I propose to organize three camps of instruction -- one at Camp McDonald, near Marietta; one at Camp Stephens, near Griffin, and one at Camp Davis, thirty miles from Savannah, on the Central Railroad.

Please reply if you have other questions on this topic.