Thank you Jim ... this has been such a puzzle and I have not had any luck either. I don't have the extensive research materials you have, but I am coming up empty as well. I am kind of working in the dark here and now am not even sure that the soldier I am looking for is Benjamin Franklin Weeks. All that I have to go on is an original letter written, which is unsigned and undated. This letter was with some papers my grandfather gave to me before he passed away a few years ago and he did not know who wrote the letter .. it was with a group of other papers; a letter written May 6th 1888 to my grandfather's grandfather, Charles Wesley Weeks, regarding the masonic lodge in Boyce LA, a letter written by Lucy Ann Collins to Charles Wesley Weeks accepting marriage, the honorable discharge dated Jan. 24, 1919 for Charles Frank Weeks (my grandfathers Dad) from the US Army Company "M" 84th Infantry, the original marriage certificate for Charles Frank Weeks, and many more documents that my grandfather saved from his family line. Benjamin Franklin Weeks is the father of Charles Wesley Weeks, so it seems to follow that he would be the soldier I am looking for. Charles Wesley Weeks was not born until 1858 and could not have been in the Civil War but his father, Benjamin, was born in 1821 in Mississippi. The letter that I have states:

"inlisted May 1862 Quitman Miss in battle at Corinth Miss Oct 3 & 4 1862
Surrendered at Vicks Burg July 4 1863 Paroled and ordered in exchange at Enterprise Miss and there remained until Exchanged in January 1864.
then join the Tennessee army at Dalton Georgia. Atlanta was Evacuated
Hood army crossed the Tennessee River in Battle at Franklin Tennessee November 29 1864 and there wounded captured at Mobile Alabama February the day I can call 1865 and was Paroled Sent Home and was at Home when Peace was Declared
This is From the best of my knowledge"

This information seemed to fit with the 37th Mississippi Infantry and since I am kind of working backwards I had hoped to find his name listed.

I began to think that the letter could have also been written by the father of Charles Wesley's wife, Lucy Ann Collins .. and NOT in Charles Wesley's direct line. Her father was Calvin Dotson Collins and he did serve in the Civil War. I found a gentleman in the 7th Battillion Mississippi Infantry listed as C.D. Collins and this bit of history on Ancestry.com:

Calvin Dotson Collins was born at Covington, La. and was a brother to Eveline
Lenora Collins Beeson. Calvin married Martha Jane Smith and they came to that
part of Rapides Parish (in 1859), which is now Vernon Parish, La. from Pike
County, Mississippi. [When did he go to Mississippi ? She does not include
that data]
He went back to Ms. to enlist in the Army for the American Civil
War and was at Port Hudson with (his) other brothers. Martha died soon after
he returned from the War. He remarried twice and moved onto Dyer's and
Hemphill Creek, located eight miles from Boyce in Rapides Parish, La., where
he died in 1902

But ... then I found this and it confused the matter a little more as this does not fit the information written in the letter that I have:

ID:Â I02813
Name: Calvin Dotson Collins 1 2
Sex:Â M
Birth: OCT 1828 in Covington, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana 1 2
Death: 7 NOV 1904 in Rapides Parish, Louisiana 1 2
Burial: 1904 Collins Cemetery, Vernon Parish, Louisiana 2
Military Service: ABT 1861 Prvt. Company E 7 Rgt LA Inf 2
Note:[Christy Vandekieft Gibson, kilikini@maui.net.FTW]

I really appreciate the hard work you put in looking ... I am rather stuck at this point.