Bryan,

Thanks for that.

I assume Captain Lawrence was an earlier commander of Captain Buchanan's company or is this an error in the Wilsons's Creek book?

I think you are completely correct about Mark Marrs being part Cherokee. Although the strict American legal definition of quarteroon
is having one black grand-parent (A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.) I have found numerous references to "quarteroon Cherokee" (http://files.usgwarchives.net/ok/nations/cherokee/guion/hhenson.txt) where one grand-parent was Cherokee.

Mark Marrs mother was I believe Delilah Springston who appears to have been half Cherokee and half white, Mark Marrs father was white thus making Mark a quarter Cherokee or in terms common at the time a "quarteroon Cherokee" and three quarters white.

With regard to the black soldier in the Hempstead Rifles, I think that Anthony will confirm that there is one face with distinctly black characteristics, the question is who was he?

Alan Thrower
England