I am looking for any information regarding the validity of an old family legend about the death of my Great-Great-Grandfather, Daniel Sims Holder private 6th Mississippi infantry. Daniel is the son of Willis Langston Holder from Laurens S. Carolina who is buried at Holders Methodist Church Graveyard.

Daniel enlisted at Gainesville in 1862 and reenlisted in 1863 and 1864. He was surrendered and paroled at Durham Station North Carolina. He returned to the Gulf Coast, probably Pass Christian where he joined his wife Sarah Ann and their children including my Great Grandfather Alfred Kenneth Holder, about the age of 10.

In the spring of 1865 Daniel and his family along with several other veterans set out on foot to return to their pre war homes and farms in Jasper County near Lake Como. At Lyman the party was approached by the Home Guard. The men in the party were instructed to present their parole papers. It is not clear in my memory of the story what transpired next.

A confrontation between the Home Guard troops and Daniel resulted in Daniel being shot to death in the presence of his wife and children and the rest of the party. It is said Daniel was buried in the woods at the side of the road.

In the company was a slave girl I only know as Tillie, who lived out her life in service to or in the employ and company of Daniel's family for two or three more generations.

I have seen copies of Daniels enlistment index cards and his name appears on rosters of Company G of the Sixth Mississippi Infantry.

I hope there might be a record of this incident that would lend some validity to the story and clarify the circumstances of Daniels death so close to his home after surviving more than three years of service and heavy action from Mississippi to Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.