Elam Sparks "E. S." Dortch | |
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Undated photo of Dortch in his later years
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Louisiana State Senator for Bossier and Webster parishes | |
In office 1900–1908 |
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Preceded by | J. A. W. Lowry |
Succeeded by | William Benton Boggs |
Personal details | |
Born |
Claiborne County, Mississippi, USA |
September 13, 1841
Died | April 29, 1943 Atlanta, Georgia |
(aged 101)
Resting place | Fillmore Cemetery near Haughton, Louisiana |
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic Party |
Spouse(s) | Susan Rebecca Platt Dortch (died 1885) |
Children |
Pearl D. Colbert |
Parents | Edward and Nancy Wooldridge Dortch |
Residence | Haughton, Louisiana |
Occupation | Cotton planter |
Pearl D. Colbert
Ola Lee West
Elam Sparks Dortch, known as E. S. Dortch (September 13, 1841 – April 29, 1943), was a cotton planter and politician from Haughton in northwestern Louisiana. At the age of 101, he was the last surviving Confederate States Army veteran from his adopted Bossier Parish.
Dortch was born in Claiborne County near Port Gibson in western Mississippi but came as a child to Bossier Parish, located opposite the Red River from Shreveport. As a young man, he worked in Fillmore in eastern Bossier City as a clerk for the merchant Elias Connell. Dortch's subsequent estate in southeastern Bossier Parish was known as "Ash Point." It was twice ravaged by flooding but survived. He operated a mercantile store on his plantation.
During the American Civil War, Dortch enlisted in the Bossier Volunteers, officially Company D of the 9th Regiment, commanded by General Richard Taylor, a son of Zachary Taylor. The Bossier Volunteers left from the then Bossier Parish county seat of Bellevue, later moved to Benton, where it remains. Dortch reached the rank of colonel under General Stonewall Jackson and was wounded at the 1862 Second Battle of Bull Run in Prince William County, Virginia, was captured as a prisoner of war by the Union Army at the 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Spotsylvania County in eastern Virginia and held until the cessation of hostilities in 1865. Dortch was thereafter affiliated with the Benevolent Association of Confederate Veterans and the United Confederate Veterans.