Connie...... There was a short biography of Marcus Tenney in the Kansas State Historical Society. Tenney was a Sergeant Major in the Third Kansas Volunteers under James Montgomery. Apparently he grew up in Alton, Illinois and witnessed the stoning to death of abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy. Tenney related that he picked up some of the type settings from Lovejoy's press that was thrown into the river. He was an abolitionist, as you said, and an unpublished diary of a sergeant in the Third Kansas mentions Tenney in such a light.

His listing in the Tenth Kansas is correct as the consolidation of the infantry companies of the Third and Fourth Kansas Volunteers occurred around the same time that the artillery companies were consolidated into the First Kansas Battery. Tenney's role as sergeant major put him in position to be promoted. Tenney served with distinction at the battle of Prairie Grove which is noted in a history of the battery by Theodore Gardner published Volume XIV of the Kansas Historical Collections.

Do you have any photographs of Marcus Tenney, letters, diary etc. that might shed light on his experiences. I do have a good deal of information on him as a group of us (Matt Mathews, Kip Lindberg and myself) are working on a book on Lane's Kansas Brigade. Also, my great-grandfather was a member of the Third Kansas, Lane's Brigade and the Tenth Kansas Infantry, so I have collected quite a bit of information.

Thanks,
Howard Mann