Clay County AlArchives News.....Confederate Soldier Remarries His Wife After a Lapse of Thirty Years May 13, 1889
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Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 April 5, 2023, 1:02 am

The Macon Telegraph May 13, 1889
Nelson Holder of Troup County, Georgia, joined the first regiment from the state 
when the war broke out.  He left behind him a young and beautiful wife, having 
been married only a few months.  Holden was a good soldier, and only once during 
the war did, he obtain a furlough and visit his wife.  He was at home for a 
short time during the summer of 1863, and soon after he returned to the front, 
he was taken prisoner.  Before Holder has an opportunity of writing to his wife 
after his capture he was taken ill with a slow malarial fever.  When captured 
Holden had become separated from his company and his comrades thought he had 
been killed.
Mrs. Holden’s first notice of the supposed death of her husband was contained in 
some resolutions passed by his company a copy of which was forwarded to the 
family.  Without making any investigations.  Mrs. Holden mourned her husband as 
dead, while he was lingering between life and death in a northern prison.  It 
was many months before he fully recovered from the effects of the terrible 
fever.
Holden was not released until after the close of the war and, weak from his long 
illness and penniless he started to make his way to the little home in Georgia.  
He was compelled to seek employment several times to earn money to continue his 
journey, and it was late in the autumn of 1865 when Holden came in sight of his 
little home.  He was a wreck of his former self, and fully realized that it 
would be difficult for his own wife to recognize him.  Arriving at the home he 
had left more than two years before, Holden found it was occupied by strangers.  
Without disclosing his identity, he asked where Mrs. Holden was.
"Oh, she married Chris Jones and moved away last spring," was the answer 
received.
Holden was prostrate by the shock of this startling intelligence, but without 
giving his name turned and walked slowly away from the little home where the 
happiest hours of his life has been passed.  He made no effort to find his wife, 
but continued his journey to Clay County, Alabama.
Holden worked a while as a farm laborer and finally saved enough money to 
purchase a small farm of his own.  In time the old love was forgotten, and he 
married again.
Holden prospered and, after a few years owned one of the best farms in the 
county.  Several children were born, and it was not long before his first 
marriage appeared like a dream.  About four years ago Mrs. Holden no. 2 died, 
leaving five children.  About a year after the death of his wife Mr. Holden sold 
a portion of his farm to a man named Jones from Georgia.  Mr. Jones builds a 
house and moved his family to Alabama.  Soon the two became good friends, but 
Holden had never been to the house of his neighbor and had never seen his wife.
Less than a year ago Mr. Jones died.  His neighbor, Mr. Holden, of course 
attended the funeral and caused not little excitement by going off in a dead 
faint when introduced to the weeping widow of the dead man.  That was not the 
time or place for explanations, and the next day after the funeral Mr. Holden 
called on his wife, and this time their recognition was mutual.
Mrs. Jones period of mourning will expire in a few days, and then she will be 
quietly married again to the husband of her youth.  She is still a beautiful 
woman and has three children living, and Mr. Holden has five.  Only a few of 
their intimate friends know the secret of their former marriage.

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