Alan,

If you look for Rev. T. H. Ball's book on Clarke Co., Alabama, as you indicated in a subsequent message, look at pp. 668-670. Ball recounts two similar stories: one occurred during the first Creek Indian War and the other happened during or shortly after the Civil War. In the first story he names the people; he does not give specific names in the second story.

I had read Ball's accounts in the 70s and done research on my families in that area. Some things just didn't make sense. In the early 80s, I made contact with a kinsman who recounted a family story similar to Ball's second account. The CSA soldier/husband was reported or assumed dead. The "widow" remarried to an apparently widowed brother-in-law. Husband shows up. Wife resumes first marriage. Have found no record of a divorce for the second marriage, so suppose they all assumed the second marriage was null and void.

While doing the research, I couldn't figure out why the extraneous marriage for the wife. Now it makes perfect sense. Loved the story and the solution to my puzzlement!

Do wonder if Ball's story is about this family.