1. It may be that Elihu Littleberry Kirksey was in Col.James Duff's Partisan Rangers in Bexar, Kerr and Gillespie Counties. James Duff organized an irrigular Partisan Ranger unit in San Antonio and was given the duty to disarm and arrest disloyal Germans in Gillespie County. The infamous massacre of Germans who were fleeing to Mexico to avoid the Civil War was attributed to Duff's Partisan Rangers.

James Duff's Partisan Rangers were expanded into the 33rd Texas Cavalry, or sometimes known as Benavides' Texas Cavalry. After consolidating into the 33rd Texas Cavalry, Duff's Partisan Rangers served the remainder of the war on the Texas coast. While in command of the 33rd Texas Cavalry, Santos Benavides cavalry was never moved from the Rio Grande River region. Near the end of the war, "Benavides Cavalry" protected cotton and cattle exports to European markets via Brownsville Texas and Matamoros Mexico. In late 1864, Col. John T.Coffee, former commander of the 6th S.W. Missouri Cavalry, moved to Brownsville and Matamoros and became a cattle and cotton sales agent for his son-in-law, planter and cattleman, John Wesley Snyder.

2. My next Civil War veteran's graves projects is for two of my four g. grandfathers. I plan to replace an incorrect headstone of my g. grandfather, William E. Gilmer in the Smith Cemetery in Lampasas County. The stone was placed there by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in the 1950s. W.E. Gilmer's stone indicates he was in the 14th Militia, Texas State Troops and that information was provided by my g.grandmother and witnessed by several of their friends and associates in order for her to receive a Confederate pension from the state of Texas. The SCV used the incorrect information they obtained from the state archives when they installed the headstone. My g.grandfather was actually in the 14th Georgia Infantry Regiment. He moved to Texas in 1870 and got married. Before the pension law was amended, a Confederate veteran would lose their Confederate pension rights if they left the state in which they were enlisted. I will have a VA bronze plaque made as a headstone with his correct service record on it and then remove the old headstone.

If you can provide proof of your ancestor's war service, you can have a VA bronze plaque or headstone made for any United States or Confederate war veteran at no cost and have it installed by the nearest cemetery memorial company and have the old marker removed. I have done VA Civil War Veteran bronze plaques for two of my g. grandfather's grave sites by simply sending the VA a copy of NPS Soldier and Sailors System information. The forms needed for this service can be obtained at any VA office. It cost $150 each to have the bronze plaques set in concrete and installed in the cemetery where my g. grandfather's are at rest.

Be advised, Confederate VA markers sometimes take longer to have made than VA markers for Union soldiers. You often must resubmit the application because it was "lost" by various clerks in Washintgon D.C.