Dunning Pressley 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 Pressley 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.

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 Pressley, is born.

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 Pressley: 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 Pressley 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 Pressley'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.