That is so true! My husband has been so sad about this relative, because he never got to marry or have children or know his family past age 21, and the saddest part is that none of his family ever spoke of him that we know of.
We were able to get some information from our state archives, and St. Louis did have some info. There are a couple of boxes at the National Archives that we can go through but we either have to pay someone or drive up to Maryland to do it ourselves.
What division was your grandfather assigned to? Were the Spanish American records in St. Louis also?
I found a booklet yesterday online with the history of the 81st (uncle's division) from it's creation, training, transport to England and then into France, battles, maps, etc. That was helpful because that whole part of his life was just unknown. I can at least piece together what happened week by week until his death.
Your relative sounds like a great man.
He was pretty wild. Think tall, slender, handsome, mustache, stetson and a six gun at his hip. Won and lost fortunes from Alaska down to Central America; gunfight at the bottom of a silver mine; gold miner, journalist and naturalist. Never met him, but the newspaper stories about him continued for a decade after his death.