Joseph Lancaster Brent
Joseph Lancaster Brent | |
---|---|
Los Angeles Mounted Rifles | |
Commands held | Louisiana Cavalry Brigade (1864–1865) |
Member of the California State Assembly for the 1st district | |
In office January 7, 1856 – January 5, 1857 | |
Preceded by | Wilson W. Jones |
Succeeded by | Henry Hancock |
3rd and 5th Los Angeles City Attorney | |
In office May 4, 1852 – May 4, 1853 | |
Preceded by | William G. Dryden |
Succeeded by | Charles E. Carr |
In office October 31, 1853 – May 4, 1854 | |
Preceded by | Charles E. Carr |
Succeeded by | Isaac Hartman |
Member of the Los Angeles Common Council | |
In office October 17, 1851 – May 4, 1852 | |
Personal details | |
Political party | Democratic |
Parent |
|
Joseph Lancaster Brent (November 30, 1826 – November 27, 1905) was a lawyer and politician in California, Louisiana and Maryland and a brigadier general in the Confederate army.
Personal
Joseph Lancaster Brent was born on November 30, 1826, in
He was educated by private teachers and received his legal education at Georgetown University.
In 1870 Brent married Roselle Kenner of Louisiana.[1]
He died on November 27, 1905, in Baltimore, Maryland, and was survived by his wife and two children, Nannie M. and Duncan K.[1] He was buried at Green Mount Cemetery, in Baltimore, Maryland.[2]
California
In 1850 he went to California from
Brent took part in a "Convention of the Delegates from the Southern Counties, in favor of a Division of the State" and was appointed to a committee to draft a concluding resolution, along with
In 1852, Los Angeles voters elected Brent, a Democrat, as their second city attorney since statehood,[7][8] and in 1856 he was elected to the California State Assembly.[9]
In mid-February 1861, Joseph Lancaster Brent, as a wealthy attorney and former state legislator of southern sympathies, was one of the prominent Angelenos who signed the petition to form the
Civil War
Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles left for Texas, and Federal troops arrived in Los Angeles. Brent decided to return to the east, sold his rancho, and boarded the Panama steamer SS Orizaba at San Diego. On this ship, he joined former U.S. Senator William M. Gwin and former U.S. Attorney Calhoun Benham, also trying to make it back to join the South's war effort. They were, however, arrested in Panama City on a charge of treason, by Brigadier General Edwin Vose Sumner while in Colombian waters. This incident could have involved the United States in a war with Colombia except for the trio giving consent to the arrest in order to avoid any harm to the citizens of Panama City. They were finally released upon order of President Abraham Lincoln.
Brent immediately went to the South to become a major and the ordnance officer for General John B. Magruder on the Virginia Peninsula. He then transferred west as General Richard Taylor's ordnance officer. He was given command of the Louisiana Cavalry Brigade on April 17, 1864, and promoted to brigadier general in October 1864, becoming one of three Californians to become Confederate generals or a diplomat.[10] He fought in Louisiana for the rest of the war.[1]
One of the most interesting events in the war to involve Brent was the sinking of
The Indianola was tasked to interdict the Confederate flow of supplies from the
Postwar
After the war, he practiced law in Baltimore, until 1870 when he married Rosella Kenner, daughter of the Louisiana planter and politician,
Brent returned to Maryland after 1887, and participated in government there.[14] The April 1894 issue of Harper's Magazine published an article by Brent titled "War's Use of the Engines of Peace."[15]
References
- ^ a b c d "Gen. J.L. Brent Dead," The Evening Star, November 28, 1905, page 11]
- ^ "Civil War Sites, Memorials, Museums and Library Collections". Archived from the original on 2023-11-28. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
- ^ Newmark, Harris, Newmark, Maurice Harris, Newmark, Marco Ros, Sixty years in Southern California, 1853-1913, containing the reminiscences of Harris Newmark, The Knickerbocker press, New York, 1916
- ^ a b H. D. Barrows (1901). "J. LANCASTER BRENT" Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California and of the Pioneers of Los Angeles County, Volume 5. Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles.
- ^ ""The Last Day," Daily Alta California, October 28, 1851". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
- ^ ""From Los Angeles," Daily Alta California, February 27, 1852". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
- ^ Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials 1850–1938, Municipal Reference Library, March 1938, reprinted 1946
- ^ ""Through Gregory's Express," Sacramento Daily Union, May 25, 1862". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
- ^ ""Additional Election Returns," Sacramento Daily Union, November 12, 1856". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
- ^ Helen B. Walters, “Confederates and Southern California,” Hist Soc of So Cal Quarterly, The Historical Society of Southern California, Mar 1951, p. 52. California Military Department Archived 2020-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Joseph Lancaster Brent". Civil War Reference. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
- ^ "JOSEPH L. BRENT PAPERS, Louisiana State University, 2004" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
- ^ H. D. Barrows, J. LANCASTER BRENT.
- ^ JOSEPH L. BRENT PAPERS
- ^ ""New Publications," Sacramento Daily Union, April 7, 1894". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
External links
- California State University, Northridge. University Library Archived 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine photo of Joseph Lancaster Brent, 1855
- Joseph Lancaster Brent at Find a Grave