Neil, Gay, and John,

Sorry about the "Guys" address. I failed to do proper background work before I wrote, but meant no disrespect. I finished midnight shift yesterday morning, and prudence should have told me to sleep a few hours more before I wrote at one this morning. I am not a kid anymore. This also showed up when I mentioned Richard's brother as "Sullivan," when a quick check with Gay's earlier input would have set me straight the man's name is "Samuel." My team lead would have been all over me if I did this kind of sloppy work at my job. I still think this "Samuel" was the brother called "James S." in the 1860 census.

Generally, those "Who's Who" accounts are written by the subject. If that is the case with the Reverend, he thought to omit his war service, possibly as a distraction from his extensive clergical work in Texas after the war.

The strongest link I saw mentioned was John's reference to FG Burnett's Fold 3 record showing he was "transferred into 11th MO Infantry or Hunter's Battalion August 1862 as a member of one of the 7 companies of Missouri Independent Cavalry..." The term "Missouri Independent Cavalry" appears to be what Richard referenced years later saying he belonged to a unit by that name, but perhaps I am stating the obvious.

I think we are getting closer to what Janelle Foster needs. I wonder if Richard's young age at the time worked against better record-keeping. That is, I wonder if a recruiter did not want to record that he enlisted a sixteen-year-old kid, and that tendency was passed along with the kid.

Joseph A. Mudd in "With Porter in North Missouri" listed a Thomas Burnett and a William Burnett in a Monroe County company on page 448 in an appendix, but no other Burnetts.

[Off the topic: Neil, only yesterday in a large library I found Burnetts mentioned associated with southern service in Callaway County in Mark K. Douglas's 2001 "Soldiers, Secesh and Civilians: Compiled Records of Callawegians in the War of the Rebellion," published in Fulton, Callaway County by Jones Republic Press. Frankly, I don't see a connection to the Burnett we are seeking, because Callaway County is a long distance from Lewis County, but this work seems carefully researched and rather extensive at 210 pages, and the bibliography in the back is impressive. If you haven't seen Douglas' book, you may want to look for it, perhaps by Interlibrary Loan, as this work is geographically close to your own similar work in Randolph and Howard Counties. I had not heard of Douglas' book before. This is more than merely a list of all known CW veterans that I have seen in some SE MO counties.]

Bruce Nichols