My notes taken from Maud Whittaker, “Life of Capt. M. D. Tenney,” miscellaneous collection, Manuscripts division, Kansas State Historical Society:
Marcus deLafayette Tenney was born February 11, 1828 in New Hampshire. From there his family moved to Alton, Illinois in 1836 then to Pekin, Illinois the following year. In 1846 he joined the 4th Illinois Volunteers and transferred to into the 11th Illinois. He landed with his regiment at Vera Cruz. The family story is at Cerro Gordo Tenney was with a party that surprised the wagon train of Santa Anna; although the Americans were outnumbered they attacked with such fury the Mexicans fled fearing they were outnumbered. For years afterward the Tenney household would display what was claimed to be Santa Anna’s cork leg which Tenney had taken from Anna’s abandoned carriage. Tenney married in 1848 in St. Louis and moved to Lawrence in 1858. In Lawrence he served as the presiding elder of his Methodist church. He was surprised to learn church officials had chosen him to act as a circuit preacher in Bourbon county; he was sent to Mound City in 1860. On August 15, 1861 he enlisted in the Third Kansas. Not desirous of being a chaplain, he joined Broadhead’s company and subsequently was promoted to First Lieutenant of the First Kansas Battery on January 15, 1862.