Hello Commander Wise, In my line of thinking the person or persons who put the "In Memory Of" marker providing they were descendants would be the best to ask for a Confederate tombstone.

In my opinion we are not a 100% sure we have the correct soldier but with the information provided us we can only reasonably assume we have the correct soldier. As you know his CMSR's stated he died in Columbus, Georgia. At that point of the war it is doubtful in my opinion that his body was taken back to Louisiana with the close of the Mississippi River etc. And I rather doubt if his body was ever taken back to Louisiana after the war.

The LMA if I remember correctly listed some Confederate soldiers buried in the Columbus and surrounding areas in the Columbus, Georgia newspaper and I believe it was about 1867 or 1868 around Confederate Memorial Day. They may have his name listed?

A letter with proof of this being the correct soldier would be sent to the NCA. Would they consider the information as enough proof? Maybe, maybe not. I would never manufacture anything that we are not sure of. The last thing we want is to have an incorrect tombstone.

Since he had a widow perhaps she might have lived long enough to receive a widow's pension if she did not remarry and we may gain some additional information from her statements.

Looking forward to hearing from others on their opinions about this issue.