Fort Fisher P.O.W. Went Home and Found Love
Solomon R. Ward, a private in the Confederate army, was sent to the Elmira prison camp in New York after the fall of Fort Fisher. He was exchanged on the James River in Virginia on March 14, 1865. He was admitted to the USA Hospital Bermuda Hundred on March 21, 1865, with smallpox. Upon returning home, he met and married Emmaline, the widow of his best friend from the war. (His friend did not die in the war, so he had to look her up later.) She had a son from her first marriage. Solomon moved into her home after they wed. They lived there until the son came of age. Then they gave him the house and built a new one nearby. To the best of my knowledge, he farmed. I found his gravesite in Delco, on a corn farm. It had a Confederate States of America tombstone. The newer house burned down. I have since found the older one. I have pictures of the house, which is in a large field at Delco. It is in bad repair, but a treasure to me. Solomon and Emmaline are buried in a cow pasture on a large farm at Delco.
