Hi Dennis, Everything you said is very true. I was already aware of this information, but I am grateful to you for going through the trouble of doing this fact finding. It seems that Vernon & Frances split up before leaving La. and James was raised by his uncle,Jasper Denard(Dennard) & family in Milam Cty.Texas. According to family talk James & Jasper were extremely close. I guess Jasper took the role of father to James. Vernon & Frances had 3 children, James (b.1846) Eli(b.1847) & Emmaliza(b.1852). It think Eli went back east with his mother Frances,settling in S.C. When war broke out in 1861 Vernon joined Waul's Legion(Willis' Cavalry Bat.) & James enlisted in the same unit in Dec.1862, according to what he wrote in his confederate pension app. . . Vernon died March,1863 in Mississippi & James stayed with his unit until the spring of 1865 when he surrendered at Houston,Texas. I am not sure how their relationship was since family contends that James hardly ever mentioned his father. James passed in 1923 from cancer. Thank you for your interest. Charles.