Hello Virgil, Yes I was familiar with his middle name as Buchanan and the story of the house fire. While it probably was a house fire that caused Rebecca's death trying to find conformation on the house fire became an issue and I could not find documentation as of yet and may not be able to and that was the reason why I left it out of his short biography. However I did use the mortality schedule as a source and it said her death was caused by burns in January of 1860. Since James Buchanan Steele enlisted in January of 1863 it might be a stretch in saying he still had bandages on when he enlisted but then again it may have been so. As we see in the 1860 census he had several young children and a father trying to save their lives in a house fire certainly could have received bad burns in doing so. As with all family stories there usually is an element of truth in all but in his case it is my opinion there is more truth than not. A good friend of mine is going to talk about James Buchanan Steele at the Camp Chase Memorial in a few days and about his life and sacrifice that he made for his country and family and knowing my friend he will give an outstanding and compassionate talk. One of our SCV camp members in Columbus, Ohio is also related to him is a distant way. He also spells his surname as Steele. Almost half of the Camp Chase dead were a result of Hood's Franklin and Nashville Campaigns.