I have no mouse cursor movement.... tiny x moves, and if I can get anything up on the startup screen after passwd... mouse x moves and selects, but will not do anything with the three dots in the upper right corner of window.

Hi dhenzler,
regarding your mouse issue I found in my notes an entry for elder version of FreeBSd, but maybe you give it a try:
##execute
kldload ums
##So, it seems, starting from 12-RELEASE, this kernel module is not in GENERIC kernel anymore
##So, if someone also have this issue, add ums_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf and reboot.
But this note is really related to an elder version of FreeBSD and not to the current, but give a try.
Regards Arnold

system responded with ums already loaded...
Oh well !
Thanks for the idea.

Mouse must be working as the 'little x' moves about and if you get something on the GUI screen it will select from the body of that screen. However it will not work on the dots that minimize maximize or delete the window...

Something is almost working... just the pointer doesn't move and thus stuff won's work.

Help !