Recently, after researching newly located records on-line, I learned my Great-Grandfather, Pvt. Fountain Wood Cook, VA 5th Calvary, fell at Five Forks on April 1st 1865. Family oral history tells of a fellow soldier, William A. Duling of the 55th Confederate Infantry, who knelt by the dying mans side and took his last request. Cook's last request implored Duling to return to his family farm in Little Plymouth, VA and care for his wife, Ann, and three of his children. (the 2nd eldest being my grandfather, Fountain Lee Cook 1863--1944) William Duling did indeed honor my Great-Grandfathers last request and, apparently, following Lee's surrender, returned to King & Queen County, ultimately to marry my Great-Grandmother (Ann Judson Cook) to become step-father to my war-orphaned grandpa. His daughter, (my mother) Virginia Del Cook-Smith, born in 1917, resides yet today in Silverton, Oregon, the living grand-daughter of a Battle of Five Forks casualty.
Whether or not Cook and Duling knew one another prior to Five Forks remains a mystery. To ask a complete stranger to marry your soon-to-be widow seems a bit beyond convention, yet it may have been a common occurrence for a comrade-in-arms to do so in those times, under such circumstances. I am still seeking anyone living in the Duling family linage who might confirm the story, or ad new details. I was able to locate the 1870 United States Census for Little Plymouth, Virginia, (King & Queen County) which documents the household of William Duling as including his wife, Ann Duling, and children; Charles Cook, Fountain Lee Cook, and Mary Cook. I have photo images of these children, and another their mother taken after the war, but there are no surviving photos of Private Fountain Wood Cook or William Duling known to me.
Once, I met the descendant of a Cheyenne warrior who was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, 1876. He told me, "General George Armstrong Custer killed my Great Grandfather." I could not help but reply: "Really? Well, you may not believe this, but that son of a bitch killed my Great Grandfather too!"
Marcus Smith
Kooskia, Idaho