Hi Marsha,
The description of your soldiers points me to believe that Elijah James is the one wearing the jacket with the shoulder straps, and Francis M. is the soldier wearing the four button jacket. The jacket with the straps was supplied by the state of Illinois to troops
early in the war, the four button jacket was a fatigue jacket supplied by the Federal government. They were easier and cheaper to make
than the jacket with more buttons and more detail work. That's my thoughts on which soldier is wearing a certain uniform. As far as where they may be buried, as stated before I would check the closest National Cemetery. In the first couple of years after the war the
government collected all the Federal dead they could locate from battlefields, and buried them in newly created National Cemeteries. I would start looking around Vicksburg and Cincinatti (sp?) area National Cemeteries for your soldiers. Good luck with this, I hope you are able to find them and can visit their graves.

I would love to see the photos but I'm not sure the intense light from a scanner would be good for your photos.

bg