(Credit is given to OMIE KENNEDY for the copy of the old photo of Richmond Bennett.)

Richmond Oliver Bennett married Sarah Jane Moore (Rogers) 25 Dec 1860 in Trinity Co, TX. He was the son of Micajah Y. & Mary (Cotton) Bennett. He fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy and was taken prisoner at least two times. After the war was over, he had to find his way home as best he could. According to family lore, after walking many miles and being thin, dirty and unshaven, arrived at his home and asked Sarah his wife if she has room for a tired old man to stay and rest. She replied that she is a widow and can't let him stay there but her father (Isaac Moore) lives down the road and would welcome him. Sarah thought he was dead and didn't recognize him until he called her by name and asked her if she didn't know who he was.

Family history and the Texas Historical Cemetery sign at Bennett Cemetery says that he gave the land for the Crecy, Texas, community to use for a cemetery. Many graves, including his parents, were already there. The previous name of the cemetery was Pleasant Hill.

All of Richmond's children are linked to him.

MORE INFORMATION:
(credit to Tom McCabe, http://astors.cs.txstate.edu/phpgedview-3.3final/individual.php?pid=IO423&ged=tfmcabesAug2005.G ED)

“Richmond Oliver Bennett – Soldier of the Confederacy”
Richmond joined Company M of the First Texas in 1862. This unit was formed from Trinity County, Texas and was the last unit to join with Hood’s Brigade of Texas in Virginia. In 1862, Company M arrived in Virginia just in time to participate in Robert E. Lee’s first attempt to invade the North, ending with one of the biggest battles in the Civil War – the battle of Antietam. The First Texas unit fought in the early morning in the infamous cornfield close to the Dunker Church. The unit suffered 82% casualties - one of the highest suffered by any unit of the Civil War – and lost its battle flag. Richmond was wounded in the thumb according to official casualty lists. Family lore is that he lost his thumb in the war.

In the spring of 1863, Richmond was wounded near Staunton, Virginia, in a skirmish. He was well enough to travel with Hood’s Brigade as part of Lee’s Army of Virginia as they invaded the North a second time. At the Battle of Gettysburg, Richmond’s unit fought through the area close to Devil’s Den and Little Round Top to capture a Union battery. At some point, Richmond was seriously wounded in the knee and head. After the battle, he was left behind with other wounded soldiers at Plank’s Farm where he was captured. He remained a prisoner until he was exchanged some time in the fall of 1863.

In October 1864, Richmond was captured once again after an intense skirmish outside Petersburg, Virginia, in which many fellow Texans were killed. He remained a prisoner until March 17, 1865, just a few days before the end of the war when he was released at Point Lookout, Maryland.

Richmond traveled home on his own as most Confederate soldiers did. When he returned in late 1865, family lore says that he surprised his family when he walked into the clearing, scaring his young boys* who did not recognize him. He had been gone for three and a half years and family lore says that his family thought he was dead.
* “...scaring his young boys...”. I think these boys would have to be Richmond’s step-sons, William and John Rogers, who were Sarah’s sons from her previous marriage.