As the Civil War moved into the Deep South, many people fled the shifting war front. Henry Coker became a refugee after two coinciding events, the death of his wife on April 30, 1862, and the approach of the Union navy up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. After his wife died, he took his slaves and his two youngest children to Alabama near Tuscaloosa, and he returned in 1864. Matilda Champion wrote on Nov. 21, 1863, after seeking brief refuge with her parents in Madison County, that since the last raid she had wanted to get away to some safe place if such a place could be found. Sgt. Osborn H. Oldroyd of the 20th Ohio Infantry argued that Southern people were foolish to flee and leave their property to the foe, saying they wanted only something to eat and that some would burn a deserted home who would not do so if the owners remained. On May 2, 1864, in Tuscaloosa County, Sid Champion of the 28th Miss. Calvary wrote after dining with H. B. Coker, who was camped five miles away, that they spent the day and much of the night talking about their old neighborhood, and that Coker was keeping a kind of bachelor establishment with his little children.