Anthony;
Enjoyed reading your methods of search. It takes dedication and patience to track down veterans especially those in the Trans-Mississippi. Over fifteen years of searching by W. Bozic and myself have documented 275 previously unknown veterans of Likens' 35th Texas Cavalry Regiment. It has required an extensive search which was fruitless more often than not. Finding the name of one new veteran is considered a major victory to us.

While your search is per county, mine is for a single unit made up from a number of counties. There are a couple of search methods we developed or lessons learned which may be applied to both. Similar methods should work in other states.

1) Fold3 is invaluable today for the amateur to serious researcher. Since the 35th was organized in late 1863, many of the veterans had served in other units earlier in the war. Many of these veterans have records in their original unit. The NARA folks filed records pertaining to their service in the 35th under their old unit. There were a considerable number of veterans who served east of the Mississippi, but returned home and enlisted in a Trans-Mississippi unit.

2) What a luxury it was when Ancestry loaded the Confederate pension on their website with a powerful search engine. In addition to identifying the original veteran being sought, check out the names of the witnesses and their statements. It is common to find the witness may be a known or unknown veteran. Search of the unknown veteran may turn up a pension, NARA records etc.

3) The United Confederate Veterans (UCV) had camps in almost every community until the bugle called the last of the old vets home. Counties may have had several camps of various sizes. Each had a number and a roster was sent in each year to their national headquarters. The LSU Hill Memorial Library in Baton Rouge, La has a great many of these rosters on file by camp number. Usually, the roster will list the veteran's name, rank, and unit. In addition to the UCV rosters some of the veterans submitted a synopsis of their service during the CW. It is best to know the camp number before going.

4) Texas provided a Confederate veterans and a widows home in Austin. Compiled from ledgers of both the veteran & widow's homes is a book called "Confederate Home Roster" by Katheryn Davis, Linda Devereaux, Carolyn Ericson. The veteran's CW unit, home residence, and additional information is listed.

5) Duplicate names are often difficult to resolve who is who, especially from the same county. The duplicate name may be no kin at all, a father and son, an uncle and nephew, or cousins, etc. It doesn't happen often, but the NARA folks may have complied records of two different veterans with the same or similar name under one person.

6) Don't get locked into searching for veterans in their home county at the time of the 1860 Census or their enlistment. Many veterans migrated after the CW. They may be in another county or state, usually farther west, and filed a pension there.