The Presley Connections~
from NC to MS
Dunning (Dunnan) Presley
Myth and Misconceptions
Regarding His Service
Enlisted at Grenada,
MS, on 11 May 1863, a Private in Co. E, Ham's Regiment 7th
MS Cavalry.
Dunning Presley was not a shirker of his duties,
that is his patriotic obligation to defend his country in
times of war. There is a lingering myth that Dunning, also
Dunnan, was a "deserter" and a "coward."The
Kin of Rock and Roll aims to put this theory
to rest. Thanks to Albert Goldman's cruel biography, "Elvis,"
Dunning has forever been painted with a brush damaging to
the subject. Many biographers after Goldman have carried
on his total myth and misconception about the service and
style of Elvis' 2nd great-grandfather.
There has yet to be a story told of one of our Presley men
behaving cowardly in time of war. A great many of them served,
in different capacities, and all served nobly, including
our own, Elvis.
Dunning enlisted to serve in the CSA after having given
the matter some thought. For almost two years after the
war began Dunning remained unattached, perhaps undecided
about the correctness of the cause. Remember, the Presleys
were a patriotic people and Dunning's ancestors had fought
to preserve their freedom in both the French & Indian
War and the American Revolution. I am sure in the War of
1812 as well for Presleys have fought in every war from
the beginning of our country and up until now.
The story of Dunning Presley does not begin with his Confederate
service, but instead begins with his service in the Mexican
War (1846-1848).
At 20 years old, Dunning Presley enlisted in Knoxville,
TN, on 1 November 1847, in Capt. Jno Vaughn's Co. C, 5th
Tennessee Volunteers. Private Presley shipped out to Mexico,
thoughts of home penetrating his anxious awareness of impending
battle. It was a first time as a soldier for Dunning, who
may have heard earlier stories from his father, Dunning,
Sr., about his grandfather's war service. Dunning hadn't
seen his father for awhile now as the older man was nestled
in the backwoods of Tennesee.
Dunning's thoughts of home included his wife, Elizabeth,
whom he had married in 1845, and their first child, Elvira,
who was born in 1846. From February to April of 1848 Dunning
is present at the battles in San Juan. In May of 1848 he
is at Natural Bridge, Mexico. In Vera Cruz, he contracted
a severe gastrointestinal disease which remained with him
throughout his life.
Dunning serves nobly and on 2 July 1848 he is back on ship
for home where he is discharged from service on 20 July
1848 at Memphis, TN.
Dunning
Presley was the first of Elvis' direct Presley line in Itawamba
County, MS.
Brave are they who fight to die, and
we should never forget their courage or their service.
For
his honorable service, Dunning receives a land grant for
160 acres of land. He returns home to wife Elizabeth and
daughter, Elvira, and sires four more children between 1848
and
1854 and
Dunning seems to be content with his renewed civilian life.
{Dunning Presley applied for a service pension from
the Mexican War from his residence in Washburn Twp., Barry
County, MO, in late 1880's which he received and was awarded
the sum of $8.00 monthly.}
In 1860, Dunning
Presley's life is again touched by despair when his beloved,
Elizabeth, dies. Left with five children , the oldest
fifteen, the youngest six, Dunning leaves them in the
care of relatives and sets out to claim land from his
grant. He heard that land in Mississippi was fairly cheap
and so he heads into northern MS. While in MS, Dunning
meets a young lady, several years his junior, whom he
marries on 15 August 1861. His first wife is gone over
a year and Dunning is in need of companionship. The joy
of their marriage is overshadowed by a new and different
war which began in April of 1861.
Martha Jane Wesson, the daughter of Edward
Wesson and Emily Ferguson of Itawamba County, MS, , is
young and vibrant, and ready for marriage and motherhood.
In February of 1862, the couples first child, Rosella
Elizabeth Presley, is born.
Unit
History Links
• Ham's
Regiment, 7th MS Cavalry
• Ham's
1st Battalion of MS Cavalry
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The Confederate Monument to
Mississippi's Sons at the MS State Capitol
Dunning
is involving himself once again in family life, but his
thoughts are disturbed by a family left behind in TN, and
also by the effects of this civil war that is happening
on union soil, a fight between fellow Americans and kinfolk.
Dunning is not quite sure what to do at this point, as he
waivers for almost two years since the onset in 1861 until
1863 before he takes a stand. He is fully aware that the
South is being invaded, and destroyed by the Union army.
Tupelo is burnt to the ground and the Union cavalry is trampling
through MS with a vengeance toward Confederate cavalry in
that area. The state of MS puts cavalry to good use and
begins to convert some of its regiments for state guard
duty. There is much confusion among Ham's Regiment and many
of the soldiers who serve in this regiment are not pleased
with the conversion process. Other regiments under General
Nathan Bedford Forrest take off in separate campaigns throughout
the state during 1864.
In Fulton, where Presley and his family live, old man Warren's
Mill is one of many mills and businesses burned to the ground
by Union cavalry. Eighty-nine-year old S. John Warren is
beaten and harrassed by the Yankees and later dies. He is
not only a neighbor of Dunning and Martha Jane, he is Elvis'
5th great-grandfather, though at the time the relation is
unknown to Dunning.
Dunning
Presley: Did He Really "desert?"
The need to protect his family and neighbors obviously
became strong as the Union closed in on Fulton, MS. Dunning
takes an "unauthorized" leave of absence from
January until June of 1864. It is not that he is a coward,
and it is important to note that his reasons for same were
due to a combination of factors including the confusion
in the regiment itself tied together with the cavalry of
Gen. Forrest taking off on a massive campaign, and the home
guard left to defend other areas in Gen. Forrest's wake.
If Dunning had intended to "desert," he would
have done so early on and would have never gone back to
his unit, to which he did return for the final roll call
in 1864. Hamm's Regiment disbanding into two separate units
could have easily wrought discrepencies in the attendance
records.
Suffering
still
from his
colon malady,
Dunning was 37
years old during the War of
Northern
Aggression. He
had already served in a previous war and was still adjusting
from the effects of that service when he chose to enlist
again. It could be also that having been in the cavalry,
he had had a horse shot from under him and may have taken
some time to go in search of another. Horses were hard to
come by in MS as nearly everything in that path had been
destroyed, farms, families, livelihood.
Throughout this time there seems to be problems in the Presley
household. Perhaps Martha Jane could not deal with the continued
absence of her husband and Dunning returned home to be with
her while she was pregnant with their second child. Perhaps
Dunning could not adjust to civilian life. At this time,
in MS, and across the entire South, a man was truly tested
as to how much he could endure.We will never know the true
answers to these questions. We can only help to solve the
mystery of Dunning Presley by fitting the pieces we do have
together.
Here's what we do know: Martha Jane gives birth to the
couple's second daughter, Mary Jane "Rosalinda"
Presley in 1864. Dunning goes back to his unit in 1864,
probably after Rosalinda's birth. He stays there until the
end of the war, 1865. He returns home at the war's end and
there are problems in the household. On a Sunday while Martha
Jane and his daughters attend Mass, Dunning walks away from
that family, never to see them again. We are told that he
had gone back to TN and assume it was to check on his family
there. Was his leaving planned that way by both he and his
wife? Martha Jane would have known William Steele for awhile
before she married him between 1866 and 1867. She died in
1868, during childbirth, quelling a further myth and misconception
that Dunning Presley was a "bigamist." With Martha
Jane having died in
1868, Dunning did not marry again until 1882.

So it was curious wonder that we try to defend Dunning
Presley's service in the CSA. We know that he was not a
coward, and we know that he did not desert his unit but
had taken an "unauthorized leave" for whatever
reason it may not have been granted to him. His service
record lists him as a "deserter," but he had returned
to his unit and remained with them until the close of the
war. There is some sort of discrepency in this record, and
The Kin of Rock and Roll is undertaking
to try and clear up Dunning's record, and will be reviewing
and researching the history with results being posted on
the website.
Elvis Presley is a 2nd great-grandson
of Dunning Presley.

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Quotes by Elvis from "Word For Word," by Jerry Osborne, publ.
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