A different kind of marriage

Great-Great-Granddaddy Frank Civils grew up in the Core Creek area near Asbury and had fallen in love with Mary Jane Riggs. When they decided to get married, their parents refused to allow it. Frank then married Elizabeth Daugherty on February 22, 1850, and Mary Jane married Albert Hunt on June 3, 1855. Both Frank’s wife and Mary Jane’s husband died on January 16, 1856. The two of them finally got married, over the objections of their families. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Frank joined the Confederate army in Craven County immediately upon the call for troops in 1861, joining Co. K of the 31st N. C. Troops. Throughout the War, Mary Jane followed him wherever he went as he marched with his unit throughout eastern North Carolina and Virginia, washing and cooking for him, keeping him company and taking care of him. She was with him through the entire war. When the war broke out, she was pregnant with her son, Frank Civils, Jr., who was born on August 17, 1861. Even so, she continued traveling the battlefields of the Civil War with her husband, carrying her baby with her. Frank Civils, Sr., was among the few who were with Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House in April, 1865, when he surrendered to U. S. Grant and was granted a pardon at that time.