Research to write a historical fiction book

I'm researching as preparation for writing a Historical Fiction. The following is the historical part. Fiction comes later when I give the characters a voice.

The first research I shared was the family trying to cross the Ohio river with the intension of settling there. However, the Indians weren't happy about these want-a-be intruders. To keep them out the Indians crossed the Ohio into Virginia (today's West Virginia) and murdered as many as they could. 

This research is about the Civil War and five brothers who fought. I put more detail on my face book because the story is about my family. Thanks to face book and ancestry there are around three hundred cousins reading my face book.

My next research will be in the early 1900's about coal miners, unions, strikes, strike breakers, and the fire that broke the strike.

The Civil War was from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865

Thomas joined the Union Army first, but only stayed three months. I can only assume he was wounded, he wasn't killed because he died an old man in 1910.  Christopher served in Co D, 31^st Ohio Infantry from Feb 14, 1864 until 10 Nov 1864. His brother Henry joined him on May 2, 1864. James and Thomas soon followed. 

They didn't join because it was their duty as Americans, nor did they fight to free the slaves. None of them had ever seen a black person. If you ask them what a slave was they would say it was like going down into a dark coal mine six days a week for a stingy coal company.

The war was a long way from Perry County, Ohio. The citizens knew little about the war. It was three years into the war before they found out for sure the country was at war. Being so far away, no one feared the fighting would ever get anywhere near them.

On 3 March 1863, the United States Congress (the North) began a draft. Finding able bodied men to draft in the cities wasn't hard, it was places referred to as the backwoods that caused a problem.

In the 1860's you couldn't check the phone book. Phones hadn't been invented. Cars wouldn't be invented until two or three decades after the war. Besides no driver's license. There were no social security numbers, because it didn't come along until the 1930's.

Babies were born at home, if the courthouse was less than a day's buggy ride the parents likely made the trip to fill out a birth certificate.  

The Department of the Army, Congress, and President Lincoln figured out they had a problem. They couldn't draft only city men. The answer was, when a man's draft number was drawn they could pay someone else to go in your place.

I don't know where $300 came from, but it became the going rate. To our boys, in Perry County, Ohio, it was more than a year's pay. I assume they also drew the Army pay of $11 to $13 a month. If they lasted a year, the pay plus the $300 would equal nearly 2 years pay.

Men who someone paid to go in their place were call Pay Soldiers. Christopher was the first Pay Soldier in his family. I'm sure his brothers were as well. There was no other reason for any of them to go to war except for the money. In the mines, they were making nearly twenty dollars a month.  

If you live or spend any time in the south, you will find Civil War reenactments everywhere. Should you ask one of the actors about Yankee Pay Soldiers, they will tell you that these men would sign the enlistment papers, collect the $300, go AWOL. Then go to a recruiting office in another town and get another $300. 

I'm sure there were con men like the Confederates describe, but of the 2,100,000 soldiers who actually served 42,000 were drafted, while 126,000 were pay soldiers.

Christopher served from Feb. 14, 1864 to Nov. 10, 1864. He saw action at Kenesaw Mountain GA, Peach Tree Creek, GA, Atlanta, Chickamauga, GA. In short, his regiment was following Sherman to the sea.

James was hard to sort out. He was in the 63^rd, 89^th, as well as the 31^st Regiment. I've listed Christopher's actions in the 31^st. James must have taken part in some if not all the same battles.

There seems to be a time when the Army didn't know where James was. A ringing in the back of my head says he took Christopher home. It makes sense, it's a long walk from Georgia to Ohio, a hard walk if you are wounded.  

That ringing tells me Christopher was shot in the hip, leaving him with a lifelong limp. What I know for sure is he took three volleys in his left shoulder. Most of the south was using the 1853 Enfield Musket which fired mini balls.

An Enfield Musket would kill you if it hit you in the right place. Christopher's step-daughter, who also became his daughter-in-law, only referred to him as Mean Man or Old Mean Man. That plus other things I've learned about him, I believe Christopher got his wounds dressed, then started walking back to Ohio.

I am only using one Regiment, for the following. All other regiments have pretty much the same numbers. The 62^nd Regiment reported 113 men killed in action while 131 were killed by disease.  

Years later, Christopher's grandson liked sitting on his lap, putting his little fingers in the three holes left by the mini balls that wounded him. True story, because that grandson grew up to be my father.  

Henry was in Company E, 155^th Regiment, Ohio, Infantry. His was also one of the Regiments following Sherman to the sea.

That leaves Thomas J. I have no information including a date of death, leaving the possibility that he was killed. I did find a Jacob, same last name in the 197^th Inf., leaving me to wonder if the J in Thomas J stood for Jacob. A lot of people go by their middle name. The family name is Slatzer, ever since the first of the family landed on these shores in the 1700's the spelling of their name has been mangled.