Thanks so much for your reply...very enlightening. This whole process is enlightening. I've been doing civilian family research in northern states for years, and while that is sometimes tangled, I've never run across such massive displacement...people don't just move, they seem to evaporate from the records.

I did check the MO Archives Soldiers Records online, which is how I found Gian Shrum. Not sure he's an ancestor, but I just starting exploring this line and he seems to be connected (husband of a gggaunt)...Gian Shrum signed on to Joel S Wright's battalion, mustered in Dec 6 1862 in Butler Co by Capt Newberry. A note on the card says "name appears only on muster-in roll above company". No other info on the card.

The family was in Pleasant Gap, Bates Co in 1860, and I understand they moved to Cooper Co during the war, possibly to the town of Blackwater. But how Gian may have come to Bulter Co, I don't know. I understand these counties were hard hit during the war. His widow remarried in Blackwater in 1869.

If you like a puzzle, I'd appreciate your help, esp any info that may help me determine where/when he died. Thanks so much, again!