These things happen. There is a book in our local library that is a history of Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. This book states that my great-grandfather John Roberts (7th Mississippi Infantry) married my great-grandmother in 1859 and then "went off to fight the civil war" and was never seen or heard from again.

Point one... my great-grandmother was born in 1859 so marriage would have been a real trick. John Roberts not only survived the war but has a fairly large service record. He also raised four children here, three who were born to him in the 1890's and one born 1888, the same year he married my great-grandmother. He died right across the hiway from my home (about 120 yards away) in November 1903.

All this makes me a little concerned about the sources used in that book. And just for laughs his statement that John Roberts "went off to fight the civil war" makes me think grandpa John must have been really tough in a scrap, going off to fight the war by himself and all ROFL :-)