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Lewis Dent — 6 Comments

  1. Lewis Dent – during the Mexican War – was a civilian employee assisting his buddy Major Thomas Swords. Swords was paymaster for the “Army of the West”. The two friends went to California travelling in company with the Mormon Battalion. Dent sent at least a couple of letters home about his experiences – one of which was republished in the Republican. If anyone knows more about Dent’s Mexican War service, we’d really like to hear from you.

    • Thanks, Kevin. I’m afraid I don’t know much about Dent during the Mexican War period, but perhaps one of my readers might. Thanks for stopping by.

  2. Well, I like this. As far as I know Jesse Sparks and Milton W. Sims did not know each other before the war and were not related to each other. However, each of them is a cousin of mine (both on my father’s side) and each of them, separately, went on to lead extraordinary lives. The recent book MILLIKEN’S BEND needs to be supplemented by much more research.

    • Thanks, Hershel. How very interesting that you are related to both men. I recall I was able to find out more about Sims than Sparks, so if you have more information you are willing to share about either man, that would be interesting. I agree that there is still much more research to be done on Milliken’s Bend, and as I state clearly in my book – it is, after all, only a beginning. At a certain point, after 15 years of research, I finally had to stop the research and start writing, otherwise I could keep on searching forever. There are so many fascinating stories to tell, and so many yet to be discovered.

  3. Where in Mississippi did Dent and his relatives live?

    There is a Dentville community just outside Hazlehurst, Mississippi, which I am told derived its name from a Dent family that lived nearby. Legend has it that the family was related to US Grant’s wife, Julia Dent Grant, Lewis’s sister, and that during the siege of Vicksburg, Grant and staff would visit the Dent family in Dentville. Because of this, after the Civil War, the Dent family became persona non grata in the community, despite the community bearing the Dent family name.

    Can you provide any detail that might confirm these stories?

    • Thanks for stopping by and providing this additional information, Stephen. I’m sorry to say I did not know about Dentville, or its history. Most of my research in to Lewis Dent was limited to his plantation leasing operations in Louisiana, in the general vicinity of Madison Parish. And, of course, his connection to Hebert and the M.W. Sims story. If you haven’t already, you might want to try reaching out to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. I did a some of my research there and they have great resources – both in terms of the materials they preserve, as well as their staff.

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