<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 12"> <link rel=File-List href="cid:filelist.xml@01CA9CDC.DA05C5B0">  <style>  </style>  </head> <body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=Section1> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:blue'>Judy wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:blue'>></span><span style='mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>To any Civil War expert:<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:blue'>></span><span style='mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>How common would it have been for a man in his mid to late 60s to have served in a Union Cavalry unit during the Civil War?  I am editing an 1839 letter for publication trying to ID the individuals mentioned.  It's from a wife to her husband.  I traced the couple on the census up to 1860 in Steuben Co., Indiana.  Then, I found a man by the same name serving in an Indiana Cavalry unit and dying in the South in 1865.  No mention of his age, but he enlisted in Steuben Co.  Problem is, this guy would have been nearly 70.  I thought perhaps the soldier was someone from a younger generation, a nephew or son, but I'm not finding anyone else by that name.  Plus, there is a pension file that lists a widow with the same first name as the wife.  I don't have the actual pension record, so I don't know if her maiden name matches.  But the names are unusual enough that it would be too much of a coincidence.<span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Judy,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>I’m no “Civil War expert,” but CW service at an “advanced” age is something I’ve encountered a number of times. If you were dealing with <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>infantry</i> service, I would expect the odds to be very, very slim that this might be the same man. (As an example, a man who enlisted in an Alexandria infantry unit at the proved age of 55 was sent home after a couple of weeks because of “advanced age.”)<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  </span>For a <i style='mso-bidi-font-style: normal'>cavalry</i> unit, I’ve seen ages in the early sixties. I cannot recall an instance for a man in his ‘mid-to-late 60s’ but would not rule it out if I were faced with all the other evidence you’ve assembled. I would <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>not</i> consider it a valid conclusion without mounting as strong a case as possible based on the GPS—which you may or may not already be close to doing. Certainly, as long as the pension record goes unexamined, any conclusion would be premature. But if, perhaps, a client is dubious about spending what it would take to order the record, you’re on solid ground in pressing the point.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:blue'>Elizabeth<o:p></o:p></span></p> <div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'> <p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt; padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:#7F7F7F'><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#7F7F7F'>Elizabeth Shown Mills, </span><span style='font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#7F7F7F'>CG, CGL, FASG</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";color:#7F7F7F'><br> Tennessee<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> </div> </body> </html>