Linda, you're correct on the various spellings. When I get time I'll start doing genealogy on some of these soldiers and hopefully the desendants may have an impact on how the soldier may have spelled his name. At times I just see an X indicating to me that the soldier could not spell. It was up to the soldier doing the roster asking the recruit "how do you pronounce your name?" At times, the soldier just wrote down what he thought the recruit said. This happened a lot in USCT regiments and well as in some other units. I guess it all depended upon how well you could pronounce your name and the spelling abilities of the man writing it down if you could not read or write. Lewis could become Louis quickly, as an example.