Who is Carl? - The First Steps

The other day I posted a "Genealogy Challenge - Who is Carl?" where I challenged genealogists to help identify the photo of an unnamed Civil War soldier based on several existing clues.  I've decided to keep writing about Carl and go through the process of asking questions, developing a research plan and looking for information.  It will be a fun exercise and I'm hoping you all will help me along the way.

Please keep in mind that I specialize in southern New England research. I am going to be completely out of my element researching information about the Civil War or the South.  I'm going to need your help!

Recently, Bill West of West in New England wrote about creating T Charts based on a concept from Val D. Greenwood's book The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, 3rd Edition.   In this exercise you draw a T on a piece of paper and then write what you already know on the left hand side and write what this suggests on the right hand side.

I thought this would be a good place to start with our mysterious Carl.

T Chart for Carl
Known Information	What this Suggests
The name of the person in the photo is Carl	Carl is not a completely common name in the mid-1800s in the United States. Ancestry.com returned 1,168 ‘Carls’ (exact name search) from the 1850 US Federal Census out of a 23,191,876 total population as identified by Wikipedia using US Census records.  The uniqueness of the name should help in finding him.  Also there may be ethnic associations tied to the name. Because his name in the caption was written by his mother parent we can suggest it was written/spelled the way she it was intended when he was named.
He was 18 years old when he was killed on April 1, 1865	If he was 18 years old on April 1, 1865 he would have been born between April 2, 1846 and March 21, 1847 (Please check my math, I’m not always good with that!)
He was killed in combat during the fighting at Dinwiddie Court House (March 31) and Five Forks (April 1), shortly before Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.	The Dinwiddie Court House is located in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.  This was a Confederate victory yet there were more Confederate casualties at this battle than union. The Battle of Five Forks also took place in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. This was a Union victory and there were many more Confederate casualties than Union. This suggests that Carl was a Civil War soldier who was associated with a unit present at one or both of these battles.  It is unclear whether he was with a Confederate or Union company.  [information from Wikipedia and not independently verified]
Possible identification: Carlos E. Rogers of Company K, 185th New York, who was killed on either March 29 or 30, 1865, at Quaker Road in Dinwiddie County. (Source: North South Trader's Civil War, vol. 35, 2010, p. 55)	This suggests that someone has done some prior research which may or may not be accurate.
The caption with the photo was written by Carl’s mother parent	This tells us that Carl’s mother parent (at least one) was still alive after April 1, 1865.
Carl’s hair was blonde	A locket of hair was included in the photo frame. Perhaps his blonde hair is a clue to his ethnic background.
“Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." [quote from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2]	This, and the caption as a whole, suggests that his mother parent was educated enough to be able to write  in cursive and that she his parent was familiar with English literature.
Click here for the Library of Congress page on Carl

Is there anything else you can add to my T chart for Carl? Can you infer any other suggestions based on what we know?

In the next post I'll start creating a research plan based on what we can infer from this T chart.