Dennis and all,

Thanks for all the information! I will surely follow up with the Ft. Delaware lead you provided as well.

The plot thickens...

Martha Clemons was Hugh Clemons sister...

21 year old Elijah (born Rensselaer County NY) and 19 year old Martha (Clemons) Ives (born Rutland Cty VT) are married and living in Luzerne NY in 1855 with their 10 month old son Edwin. Elijah is listed as a laborer.

According to later census records they gave birth to a daughter Cornelia in Georgia in 1858.

Elijah Ives is listed on the roster of Co. I 26th GA Infantry. His record says enlisted May 1, 1862, Captured as a Confederate deserter at Racoon Ford, VA Sept. 29, 1863. He took the Oath of Allegiance to the US Govt at Old Capitol Prison, Washington. He was released and sent to New York March 14, 1864.

The Ives family had returned to the Luzerne, NY area (Conklingville, NY) by 1865 and Elijah is listed as a mechanic.

By the 1870 census the Ives family had returned to Georgia, but their 1 year old daughter Eunice (named for maternal grandmother) is listed as born in IL? At this time Elijah is running a Confectionery ("Confederate Candy Man"?) with his son Edwin as a clerk and they are enjoying the services of a 17 year old black domestic servant named Rachael Monger (native of GA)

In the 1880 census Elijah is still running the Confectionery in Georgia with his 25 year old son Edwin as a telegraph operator and a 12 year old mulatto girl, Virginia Knight, as a servant but also "going to school".

So apparently Hugh Clemons brother-in-law may have also been "pressed" (can't stop thinking of candy at this point) into the Confederate service as well, his date of entry jiving somewhat better with the April Confederate Conscription Act. Although Elijah went home to New York, while Hugh ended up in the Union Army.

What is still fuzzy is what originally brought them to south Georgia in the 1850's, how they got roped into Confederate service, and why they returned to the reconstruction south (via Illinois?) to run a Candy Shop. An interesting tale seems to get more interesting the more I investigate.

-Ben