My 3X-great grandfather, John Francis Dent, often referred to with the courtesy title of Colonel, was the eldest son of John Benjamin Dent and Catherine Petrie. He was born at Dent's Inheritance, the family plantation in Charles County MD on the 20th of March 1814. The family's property in Charles County was sold after John Benjamin's death, and John Francis and his brother Walter bought extensive farmland in neighboring St. Mary's County. Col. Dent owned Burlington Plantation at Oakley as well as several other large properties.
John Francis Dent married Lillia Blackistone, the daughter of George Blackistone and Rebecca Hebb in St. Mary's County in 1839. He and Lillia appear on the 1840 Census along with their infant son Francis Blackistone Dent, 4 free persons of color and 6 slaves. In 1850, the Census shows John and Lillia with 4 children: Catherine age 7, John M, age 5, Mary age 3 and Lillia age 1 (Francis having died in 1841). At that point, he owned 12 enslaved people. His real estate was valued at $4500.
From 1852 to 1854, Col. Dent represented St. Mary's County in the Maryland House of Delegates and was elected Speaker of the House in 1854.
By 1860, John and Lillia had had three more children: Frances, Grace, and Robert, although only Frances (Fanny) lived to adulthood. With the help of 18 enslaved people, John raised sizeable crops of tobacco, corn and wheat as well as herds of cows and sheep. His land was valued at $24,000 and his personal property (including slaves) at $29,000.
Although Maryland did not secede from the Union, St. Mary's County, deep in Southern Maryland, was hardly a stronghold of Union sentiment during the Civil War. In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln got exactly 1 vote in the county. (The identity of that voter was no doubt a closely guarded secret.) St. Mary's County was occupied by Federal troops throughout the war and arrests of civilians were quite common. In effect, St. Mary's was under martial law for most of the war.
John's oldest son, Marshall, "skedaddled South" like many other young men of the county to serve in the Confederate Army. (He was wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Virginia in 1862, managed to make it across the river and was hidden at home to avoid capture until his wounds healed. He spent the remainder of the war doing administrative work in Richmond and later lived in Georgia for a number of years before returning to Maryland.)
It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that St. Mary's managed to elect John Francis Dent, a pro-secession representative to the House of Delegates in 1861. Dent also served on the Maryland Constitutional Convention in 1864 and 1867 and was instrumental in reviving the Democratic Party, which at the time was the pro-Southern party.
Fortunately for family historians like me, Col. Dent was an inveterate writer. He kept a diary from 1853 until his death in 1898 and wrote daily letters home from Annapolis when he was in the legislature. Not only do these writings give intimate details about the family and the workings of the farm (including almost daily weather reports), they provide powerful insight into his feelings about the War.
His diaries are replete with reports of the arrests of various of his neighbors by the hated Federalist soldiers as well as scathing comments about the few neighbors who supported the Union.
In March of 1863, for example, he expresses his outrage that Union soldiers were taking possession of all boats in order to prevent communication between St. Mary's County and the Virginia shore on the opposite side of the Potomac River. John's brother Walter was arrested that year and imprisoned in Washington DC for smuggling goods across the river to the Confederates. John wrote to his distant cousin, Julia Dent Grant, wife of General Grant, in an effort to secure Walter's release. Eventually Walter was freed on the argument that no evidence of smuggling was found (since the goods had already been unloaded in Virginia and he was on his way back when arrested.)
Later that year he reported: "Had a round of words with an Irish soldier McDonald at Milestown. He was very provoking and evidently wished me to say something by which he could cause me to be arrested. I claimed stoutly in defiance of him a right to express my opinion with regard to the war. I believe him to be an unmitigated scoundrel and blackguard."
John kept himself very well informed about the progress of the war and his diary comments regularly on the outcomes of various battles. "News of Hooker's defeat reached us by private hands. The papers do not confirm it, but the tone of the news is such as to create the impression it is true." "Fresh news of Hooker's defeat. Secretary Stanton calls it a failure, not a disaster. But it looks too much like a disaster to pass for anything less."
In June of 1863, Col. Dent reports regularly on the Confederate advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania, noting that Federal troops in the county were called away to defend against that advance. On July 2, he reports that "a heavy battle is imminent" and noted that the Confederate army had been "very daring." On July 4, he reported that the Federal Army had been "worsted" in battle a few days earlier. (Remember that he only got the news after a lag of several days.) By July 7, he acknowledged that Lee had been repulsed at Gettysburg, but also noted that many Federal officers had been killed or wounded. On July 19, he noted that "St. Mary's County Confederates suffered very severely at Gettysburg battle. Most of the wounded are prisoners. Much unhappiness in the county among their friends. Several have gone from the County to minister to their wants including two physicians."
One source of particular ire for Dent was the Federal confiscation of property and the recruitment/"abduction" of Negroes to serve in the Union army. He describes this repeatedly in his diary. In August 1863, he notes that "I learn that C. Spaulding's goods have been ...carried off. Spaulding prisoner aboard steamer. Is it possible that such outright robbery can be done in our County without resistance or redress? I confess there is a spirit of cowardly submission on the part of our people which astounds me." The Colonel comments frequently on the "faithlessness" of the Negroes who run off to join the Union Army. In point of fact, very few white men were drafted from St. Mary's County as most of the draft quota was filled by Negro volunteers, much to Col. Dent's disgust. In 1864, he noted that "in all, twenty slaves have been taken from me by the Federal military, which I value at $15,000." He later tried unsuccessfully to claim damages from the government for his losses, and wrote personally to President Lincoln to protest what he saw as a grave injustice.
In September 1863, Col. Dent received word that he had been nominated to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates, again, having served several previous terms. Election to the House at this time, with a Governor who sided with the Federalists, was fraught with danger to fortune and freedom and a most difficult assignment in a divided state. "Having accepted such positions in prosperous times, I feel I have no right to decline in these disjointed times." He undoubtedly felt that without some Southern sympathizers in office, the Maryland "radical Republicans" would have it all their own way. He later describes his position in the House as "the Rebel corner."
During his last term in the House and during the Constitutional Convention in 1864, Dent's letters show his position on the war, as compared to one of his neighbors: "He for sustaining the Administration in the prosecution of the war, even to subjugation and holding the South as Russia does Poland while I oppose the war and am for separation, rather than continue the war."
Early in 1864, he notes that he thinks this will be the last year of slavery in the state of Maryland, an intuition which proved correct as the Maryland Constitution of November 1864 abolished slavery, thus leading to Maryland's nickname: The Free State. However, the new Constitution also instituted a loyalty test which effectively denied the vote to anyone who had supported the South, a provision that Col. Dent vehemently opposed (and which was later rescinded by the Constitution of 1867.)
I addressed the House against the 'test oath' in the Convention Bill. ... I alluded to its effects on gentlemen, who at the breaking out of the war, some of whom filled the highest position in the state, whose first impulses were prompted by gushing and overflowing sympathies for those we were then pleased to call our Southern brethren and led them to interpose obstructions to the Federal authorities in various ways. ... All these who had in various degrees opposed and obstructed the Federal authorities and manifested sympathy with and for the South, even though now within the pale of the highest Church of recognized loyalty, would be disenfranchised by this oath.
The Colonel felt himself under constant threat of arrest, noting that
"the whole country is full of detectives.... They direct their efforts toward all who have the manliness to denounce the administration and they need only small pretexts to arrest whom they desire to get within their clutches."I have very good reason to think they have been on my track and still may be. But I defy the villains and their villainies. While I have denounced and will denounce all their outrages unsparingly, I know my duties well enough to keep within my rights in all I do and say. "
In fact, Col. Dent was arrested several times during the War, but always managed to secure his release.
With the end of the War and the emancipation of slaves, the value of Dent's property dropped dramatically to just $2300 in 1870. He narrowly avoided bankruptcy (the fate of many Southern Maryland farmers) by selling off much of his land holdings. He was also a lawyer and supported his family in part by handling the legal affairs of his neighbors.
Following the war, Col. Dent directed a great deal of his effort to reviving the Democratic Party and, as his obituary noted, "to his end he kept the faith and ever followed the Party flag."
He continued throughout the remainder of his life to be active in the affairs of the community, serving on various taxpayer and road commissions. For a number of years, he was president of the Board of School Commissioners of St. Mary's County and at his death was president of the Board of Trustees of Charlotte Hall Academy.
Lillia Blackistone Dent died in 1884 and Col. Dent married for a second time to Lucy Chandler of Westmoreland County VA (directly across the Potomac) in 1893.
Col. John Francis Dent died in Westmoreland County VA in January 1898 at the age of 84 and is buried at All Saints Cemetery in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD.
Of his nine children, only three--his son John Marshall Dent (my 2X great-grandfather), his daughter Fanny, and his daughter Georgianna--survived him.
While I’m not in agreement with a lot of Grandfather Dent’s thinking, his writing is helpful in understanding the attitudes and prejudices of his place and time. And no one can say he wasn’t right up front in laying out what was on his mind.
