Hi Dennis,
I lived in Ohio over 12 years ago for 11 years but am not from there and so would not be related to your friends.
I cam see the good general trying to do his work and being a completist but the WD not caring about CSA stuff. A similar thing took place with the hundreds of flags stored at West Point that had to be destroyed in the early 1940s - the WD did not have the funds to restore them and with the war brewing they were destroyed which sadly included a number of USCT flags.
greg Biggs