In "Descendents of Robert Cooke and Sarah Fielding" by Robert Kimbrough, p. 11, it says: "He was a Mason. In Jul. 1861, with his brother, Duke H., he bought from their father 130 acres on the Conesauga River, part of the Starr tract . He was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War, enlisting with his brother Jacob A. Kimbrough, on 11 Jun 1861, in Co. H, 19th Tenn. Infantry Regiment. In the Carlock book he is said to be "a gallant Confederate soldier". He was in the battles of Fishing Creek, Corinth, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. He was captured 11 Feb. 1864, while on a scouting party near Benton, Tenn. and was held prisoner at Fort Delaware, Del. until 27 Feb 1865, when he was sent to City Point, Vir. to be exchanged. There is no record of the date the exchange was made. The next record is an Oath of Allegiance he signed on 28 Jun 1865, at Nashville, Tenn. which states that he was paroled 10 May 1865, at Washington, Georgia. He is described as having light complexion, light hair, and blue eyes, and being 5'9" tall. After the war he went to Colorado and Wyoming. The family legend is that he made a pretty good strike in the gold fields of Colorado."

After his marriage, he and his wife are listed in 1872 and 1874 as residents of Ninnescah Twp, Cowley County, Kan. In 1875 and 1880 they were farming there. In 1884 they moved to McMinn County, Tenn. where they built a home near Etowah in the Conasauga Valley. In 1900 Mary Ann owned a farm in the 13th Civil District of McMinn Co. In 1913 she filed for a Confederate Widow's Pension from the state of Tennessee, which she received until her death in 1935 . In 1920, she was living alone in a house she owned on East Etowah Road, in the 3rd Civil District of McMinn County . In Aug - Dec 1925 she was living on Rt.1, Etowah, Tenn. when she wrote several letters to her granddaughter-in-law, Thursa Hunter Kimbrough in Cushing, Oklahoma.