I don't think I understood the March record correctly as I had thought that since he was dead by the end of February the March record was some kind of error. If he was alive until March, as you have indicated by your reading of the clothing record, that opens up a lot of possibilities as to how he died since the 154th was on the move in the latter half of February to Demopolis and he could have died accidentally.
Do you know if they were back in Dalton in time for the fighting at Crow's Valley in Feb. 1864?