Dear George:
Thank you for your kind reply. I have been to the Archives in D.C. but not recently. A study in patience, to be sure. Genealogical research is a lonely passion at times. I have found a number of people willing to help over the phone in a number of places. I've made friends on the internet because of it and learned to respect the hallowed ground of cemeteries. If come in contact with people such as yourself and George Martin who bothered to answer my questions out of shared curiousity and a selfless desire to help find others' missing loved ones.The NARA is one organization out of hundreds that I deal with that do not have a live person to talk to. The LDS Library in Salt Lake is a huge repository, yet the folks there are always available by phone. Recently, we needed Swedish records interpreted. A man at the desk translated the entire document for us. They've been great at every point on a number of queries. I'm just saying it would be nice if the NARA was as accessible.
My great-great grandfather is Samuel McCamish. He served in the same Regiment as Andrew Cawood but in a different company and capacity. He was a 51 year old private in Co. I. His son, James, 21, was a private in Co. because they mustered in at different towns/ counties in TN just across the Hiawasee River from each other. Cawood was a Capt. and leader of Company B. He was wounded in the leg during the last days of the siege of Vicksburg. Burt Blackmon a Civil War historian living near Point Clear Hospital where Cawood died and is buried, believes there might be others from the 43rd buried in Confederate Rest because they found Cawood there. I have Samuel and James' muster records. James was not wounded but did not return home after Vicksburg. Samuel was wounded and sent to Mobile via new Orleans. Mobile was full, so many solders were sent on to the Quarles Hospital at Point Clear. I have checked cemeteries in New Orleans and Mobile. No Samuel McCamish. The dead remain mostly unidentified at Point Clear because the records burned up in a kitchen fire in 1869. A copy existed but went missing from the library in Bay Minette, AL about 1960. In some field hospitals in TN a coroner/mortician went among the dead and pronounced them so along with a doctor if available. They must have kept records that are now public domain. I am in the process of checking on such an occurance at Point Clear-highly unlikely, but possible. I am leaving no stone unturned...