"so I've often wondered if he wasn't a very reluctant soldier malingering to avoid warfare."
Rees,
I wonder if perhaps he was a victim of a "Conscript" unit that brought him into the Va. outfit in the first place. Something that you stated in your previous post is that after the war he settled in WV. That makes me wonder if perhaps he was a Unionist from the start since the western Virginians opposed seccession in the first place, that is why they split off from Va and petetioned the government for statehood. That is why they created a Virginia government in absentia due to the fact that no recognizable government existed in Richmond. I assume that you have searched for him with success by searching the census records. I am having a senior moment just now so if I asked this before, I am sorry, but do you have his obit?
FC