OK Stuart, now this is where I need some clarification: Do you think when it says that he En. (enlisted) in the U.S. Navy, that it could have been the Army? The family story never mentioned the Navy at all. It was always that he went west to fight Indians after being released from prison by a Union officer he knew from racing horses in St. Louis. The deal was: If he took the oath, that would be his assignment (and he would receive a homestead afterwards.) I see that Camp Douglas was one of the places used to group for this detail. We are going on such limited information that lots of error is possible. I don't know how to research the info on the infantries out of Camp Douglas. It is pretty frustrating.

Since the only info we have on Michael McGrath is from his own account of the veterans 1890 census, we know he was in the Louisiana 13th and I don't find any other with that name.