Sue
.. Understanding your frustration, but sorting things like this out
for some may take years of collateral research to piece together and
or sort out the mixed. First, the "cards" you referenced are copies
of copies of original muster, enlistment, pay, clothing, that were
transcribed decades after the war. Mistakes within are frequent since
many of these people transcribing these records that sometimes were
difficult to read to start with. If one muster has a name listed
as John Smith... then another card has it as J.Smith... it was a common
assumption that this might be the same person and files consolidated.
They had no means to know if this was actually the same John Smith
or maybe it was a James Smith that entered the unit later... Sometimes
initials or ages are just copied in error rather than it be a mixed
record of more than one person. Occasionally I will find a single
file card misplaced or linked to the wrong record, due to some other
copy error.

Also as I tell all family researchers that because a name may match,
is rarely conclusive proof alone that the person found is indeed the
sought ancestor. In the Victorian era it was also common to regenerate
popular family names... So could easily have three cousins all named
after a popular uncle or grandfather all with the exact same name,
living in the same area at the same time. This is a frequent nightmare
to the researchers. It sometimes takes extensive alternate
research to sort them out and put each in its proper place in a lineage.
Ive had people that have spent much marking the graves and honoring people
with a same name... that later research reveiled that it wasnt actually
the ancestor they thought it was... same name... unrelated different person...

Muster records tend to give full names or at least first, middle initial
and last. Other records such as clothing returns, payrolls, hospital,
commonly will be found using only first two initials, then the surname.
These are the ones that sometimes will get mixed up.

This Joseph W Brown most likely is a legit person, The "JW Brown" might
also be mostly his too. There might be other "JW Brown" named record fragments
placed within the same file that might not be that of Joseph. However it
would be quite difficult to prove that the fragmented JW Brown cards
that may seem out of place or pattern with the others that it is in fact
those of Joshua. Especially since no other muster record was found with
Joshua by name as a foundation point that he actually may have served.

Im curious what other information that you may have that gives a strong
impression that your Joshua W Brown did in fact serve in the military forces?
Noting that in 1862 the enlistment cut off age was 35. Western Virginia
counties were quite hostile since the political sentiments ran on both
sides. Much of the western areas came under Union control fairly early...
even if he had the desire he might not have had the ability. Living in
an occupied area people tended to sit still and stay quiet, especially if
they had family and property there at risk.

On another note those that served in state local, reserve, and homeguard units
are frequently not counted as "Confederate" since they didnt serve under the
Confederate central government control, but only the state forces itself. So
many of the existing records of these organizations might not be found in
the usual "confederate" records. Unfortunately much of the records on these
local units was destroyed in the Richmond evacuation fires.

Frederick