Hi John,
Thanks for clarifying the March to the Sea; thought the wiki was wrong.

photo of dining hall
http://www.archives.gov/publications/ref-info-papers/109/national-home-for-disabled-volunteer-soldiers.pdf

Would any of the information list his wife at any time? On their daughter's obit (my grandmother, who died in 1924 or so) lists her name as Mrs. David A Nichols (her first husband's name was Thomas Scotton Nichols). So she used the English version of her name.

This is more than I could have imagined. This Marion Home was named after Francis Marion; my brother in law is a descendant of his. I think I mentioned that I grew up in the South in the town that Sherman by-passed on his March to the Sea (Augusta, local legend says he had a girlfriend there, but alas, it was also known as Paris of the South)

Now that I have figured out how they got from Nebraska to Indiana, I need to know why he didn't live with his family. His disability is listed has hard of hearing.

Would his wife have gotten his pension after he died?
btw, my Dad is 86, this is all new information for him and he is ecstatic to find out all about his grandfather, whose name we didn't know until last week.

Thanks a million,
Linda