About a week ago, I was ask to look over the list of men of the 3rd and 27th Texas Cavalry that might have died at Iuka on 19 Sep 1862 and in the days following and who might have been buried in the Mass Grave at Shady Grove Cemetery in Iuka, MS. The list was an outstanding document produced by Chip Culpepper of Little Rock and inspired by Dr. Kenneth E. Byrd of the Indiana School of Medicine. My small effort was to confirm most of what Chip had documented, using a document from the Wilson Creek Battlefield that listed the details of all the 3rd Texas Cavalry. I did identify one soldier who was on the staff of the 3rd who was a KIA. The 27th required that I go to the NARA files at Footnote.com and review each soldier on the list. A little changing of status was necessary, but in general Chip's list was valid. A superior work.

This work will allow the people at Iuka to mark that grave and acknowledge the presence there of many lost soldiers. Not all, maybe, but much better than before. We owe Chip and Kenneth more than words can say. Kenneth Byrd may have started the ball rolling to determine all the unknown. All it requires is a little work, by all of us studying Civil War history. I have a complete roster of the 3rd, 6th and 9th Texas Cavalry Regiments and will complete what the roster that I started on the 27th Texas Cavalry ( Whitfield's 1st Texas Legion). The 3rd Texas roster is found at the Wilson Creek Battlefield site and the 6th and 9th are in Stephen Kirk's books. I have and alphabitical listing of the complete 27th Texas and will add to that. Stephen Kirk says he hoppes to complete a work on Sul Ross Texas Cavalry Brigade by July which may include the 3rd and 27th rosters. This may be an important work also, because it will include data that has not been recently published and in some cases never.

May we give thanks to the men like Chip Culpeppper and Dr. Kenneth Byrd and pray for Stephen Kirk, who though 84 is still grinding out data for us all.