Emilio walked the grounds with me. There was lightning and thunder in the distance, but we risked it.
The grounds were much wetter than they looked and by the time we got back to the car, our shoes and socks were completely soaked.
If I had realized earlier where this battlefield was, it would have been a destination. One of our direct ancestors fought here on October 25, 1864.
Colonel Barnett "Barney" Ford, born in Tennessee on March 1, 1833, had a daughter, Martha, when he was 21 years old. Ford is the bearded man sitting in the photo below. His daughter Martha is sitting on his right. His mother-in-law Jane is on his left, and his wife Sarah is on her left.
Martha had a daughter, Vina May, when she was 38 and living in New Mexico territory. That's Vina May sitting in Martha's lap on the far left of the picture. Vina May's father, Martha's husband, James Rogers, standing behind Martha with his hand on her shoulder. James also fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side (21st Regiment, Texas Cavalry) as did his father, Augustus (17th Regiment, Texas Cavalry).The photo above must have been taken around 1892, probably in Cerrillos in New Mexico Territory.
Vina May married Mississippi-born William Bascom Benton on June 29, 1915 in Tom Green County in Texas (county seat: San Angelo). Their eldest son, James Hamilton, was my dad's dad. Vina May was known in the family as "Mama Bent," and she was well-loved by Dad and by Grandmom, her daughter-in-law.
What follows is overly long account of what I have learned about Mama Bent's grandfather, Barney Ford and his experiences in the Civil War. The information comes from a combination of online sources including Ancestry.com (Lee Griffin), Wikipedia, the National Park Service, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The sources don't all agree with each other, but here is my current guess at the story. Most of these words have been copied from these sources, lightly edited, and stitched together.
