Charles:

The book you have on the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry is probably part of the Virginia Regimental Series I mentioned. It should tell you which company W. H. TRIBETTE was enrolled in, and which county in Virginia that company was recruited from. Civil War soldiers generally went off to war with family, friends, and neighbors. Knowing which county he came from, you can then backtrack to the 1860 Federal census for that county. If you find the man listed, he probably isn't your Mississippi/Indiana connection.

You could also get a copy of W. H. TRIBETTE's Compiled Military Service Records in the hopes that an enlistment paper may be found which might give you his age and county of birth, and his place of residence at the time of enrollment. Sometimes a place of residence will be listed in the final parole record for a man that reported into a Provost Marshal's office to be accounted for at the end of the war. The CMSR can be purchased from the National Archives or through the Military Records Research Service which supports this message board. See the linkage at the top of this page.

Beyond that, you need to find letters and newspapers reports from communities associtated with the story as you know it, and post-war memoirs. Published family histories were all the rage at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. I really think this Virginia connection is a coincidence of names, unless you can come up with a story for him being there.

That's about as much as I can suggest. Good luck with your renewed search!

Hugh Simmons