Thank you for your efforts, John. It really is very generous of you to look for me.

Yep, that's him! Everyone in the family was a blacksmith. His father, Jacob, was one, and some of his brothers as well. I just found George and his father in the 1860 and 1870 censuses in Cleves, Miami Twp., Hamilton Co., OH. George is 49 in the 1870 one, probably the same one you found. One new clue I got from the 1860 census was that sometimes he seems to have gone by his middle name -- Washington -- rather than George. (In the 1860 census, he is listed with his father, mother and Eliza, as "Washington, age 39.") I think I will try searching for a Washington Eckman or a W. Eckman on "Soldiers and Sailors," and see where that gets me.