David..... I am only stating opinions and hearsay from memory on this topic (meaning I could be way off base). From what little I know, Burke's information was either taken from the Adjutant General's reports and interviewing some surviving members of various regiments, along with any public documents he had at his disposal.

Accuracy would have suffered some from such an approach. For example, I am aware of at least two versions of the Adjutant General's reports. I believe one was done in 1865-5 and another much later (here is where I would have to look). There are discrepancies between the two. For example a 10th Kansas soldier is noted as having died in May 1862, no explanation in the later Adjutant General's report. The earlier report shows he was hung by the townspeople of Marmaton for committing rape.... quite a different story. To further complicate the ability to track events related to soldiers through rosters, I am currently completing a comparison of the Third and Fourth Kansas rosters (published in a shorter document called the 13th Bienniel Report of the Adjutant General)with subsequent rosters that soldiers in Lane's Brigade transitioned to. Between the two there are many different spellings of names, disparate dates of events, events noted on one or the other roster but not both, and men left off.

I have found that there are several approaches to this difficult problem. Thorough period newspaper research frequently highlights or clarifies changes or events not covered in the "Official" histories. For example you will need to look at the Missouri Republican or Democrat around the dates of discharges.

If you want to send me their information I will look at what I have. I do have quite a few copies of these newspapers during this time period.

Good Luck.
Howard Mann