Posted on: OZMENT Biographies Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/surnames/o/z/OZMENT/biographies/4 Surname: OZMENT, MARTIN ------------------------- >From the book "Confederate Military History" by O. M. Roberts, 1899 p.571-573: "JAMES WISDOM OZMENT, a prominent citizen of Palestine, and a veteran of Gen. Tom Green's Texas cavalry brigade, was born in Tennessee August 4, 1842. His parents were Varnum and Harriet Ozment, he a native of North Carolina, of French descent, and she of Tennesee. The mother died in 1845, and the father brought his family to Texas in 1849, and engaged in business as a merchant in Cherokee County. Young Ozment received a good academic and business education, completing his studies at New Orleans, La, where he was when the great war began. With true loyalty to the South he tendered his services as a soldier, and during the early part of the war and at the time of the capture of New Orleans in the spring of 1862, he was a member of the reserve troops of Louisiana. Later in 1862 he joined [p 572] Company A of the Second regiment Texas cavalry, the first regiment formed in Texas, and commanded first by Col. John R. Baylor, and later by Charles Pyron. The regiment was composed of nine companies from western and southern Texas, and one, Company A, from the eastern part of the State. Private Ozment and his comrades participated in the recapture of Galveston under Gen. John B. Magruder, January 1, 1863. In the summer of 1863 he was on duty in Louisiana with his regiment, which then formed a part of Col. James P. Major's Texas cavalry brigade, and he participated in General Taylor's advance toward New Orleans, his regiment, 260 strong, fighting with great galvantry at Lafourche Crossing, June 21st, against 1,500 of the enemy, and losing half their number killed and wounded, forty-six being left dead upon the field. He also participated in the capture of Brashear City, the battle of Bayou Bourbeau and various other engagements in Louisiana, fighting dismounted. Subsequently the regiment was sent to Texas, and Company A was stationed at Fort Duncan, near Eagle Pass, on detached duty, under Maj. Sherrod Hunter. Their duty there was to run down renegades and smugglers and protect the settlers from Indians. They campaigned on the upper Pecos against the red men in the fall of 1864, and had some active fighting and exciting adventures. Mr. Ozment acted as adjutant, quartermaster and commissary of this expedition, and subsequently he served as adjutant and provost marshall of the post at Fort Duncan and Eagle Pass, until the disbandment of the troops, some time after the surrender of General Lee. Company A yet maintains an organization and Mr. Ozment is one of the fifteen or twenty who meet annually at Dallas and other towns for a genuine Confederate love feast and good time. When the war was over and the country had settled down again in peaceful guise, Mr. Ozment made his home at Palestine and engaged in mercantile pursuits. At a later date he became very active in the promotion and management of various industrial and financial enterprises, becoming president of the Palestine National Bank, Palestine loan association, real estate investment association, People's cooperative loan association, the Palestine water company, Eureka manufacturing company, and other companies, and he has also been quite successful in the management of the telephone and electric light business of the city, his present [p573] occupation. He also has an extensive business in fire and life insurance. Mr. Ozment was married in 1867 to Eva L. Martin, and they have three daughters living: Pearl, Coral and Garnet." Provided by Lon Martin Link: Ozment Family Genealogy URL: <http://members.aol.com/eleanorcol/OzmentFamily.html>

There is an entry in the "Texas Marriages to 1850" database on Ancestry.com for what looks like this family. It would be a second marriage of James' father, following the death of his mother Harriet in 1845. "Mallard, Susan J. married Ozment, Varnum on 17 Sep 1850 in Cherokee County, Texas" These marriage records, compiled by Liahona Research at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT, unfortunately do not contain citations for the origin of each entry. Caroline Miller