Bruce;

You made me stop to think (and that always causes a headache ...) I had thought about first name and middle initial before, but never bothered to incorporate it into my rules base. That was really dumb of me for a very personal reason.

My direct ancestor who served in the Civil War was William H Musick of the 106th Illinois Infantry. When I first started researching him, there was some confusion with William H H Musick of the Pike County Home Guard, 9th militia Cavalry, 13th Cav, 119th USCI, and the 124th USCI. (One of my favorite uncles once said "I guess we know which one isn't him. I really like this uncle; He heads up one of the Star War projects at Los Alamos. But the racism was a bit much for me.)

As I studied, it turned out that the William H H Musick in Missouri (and the colored infantry) was a distant cousin of my William H Musick. William H H, and his brother, Lewis Elza Musick, served in the same regiments. They are both listed on the African-American Civil War monument in Washington DC. They were descendants of Thomas Roy Musick, the Baptist minister who founded the Fee Fee Baptist Church just north of St Louis ("The oldest Protestant Church West of the Mississippi).

It was hard for me to guess who William H Musick of Illinois was names for. His grandfather was mortally wounded at Tippecanoe. William H H Musick in Missouri was also named for the same President.

At any rate, I just took a moment to construct a table of first names and middle initials. This will further help me to make sound decisions as to what two sets of names on rosters are likely to be the same individual.

Here is my top twenty (or so) list:

George W
Francis M
Benjamin F
Andrew J
Thomas J
James M
James H
William H
James W
James A
Henry C
Thomas B
Charles W
Charles H
George H
John W
Thomas H
James C

"It will be left as an exercise for the student to determine for whom these men were named ... "