Biography of Dudley Milam, Sebastian Co, AR

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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page 1347

Capt. Dudley Milam, farmer and stock raiser, is a son of John and Levica
(Hamby) Milam, who were born in  North Carolina, and when young went to Hickman
County, Tenn., where they married, and where the father  died at the age of
about forty-two years. The mother spent her last days in Boone County, Ark.,
where she lived  to be sixty years of age. The father was a soldier in the War
of 1812, being a participant in the battle of New  Orleans, and was a
blacksmith, wood workman and farmer by occupation. He was an old-time Democrat,
and a  son of Jordan Milam, who served seven years in the Revolutionary War,
and died in Arkansas at the age of one  hundred and ten years. Capt. Dudley
Milam is the eldest of seven children, and was born in Hickman County, Tenn.,
February 9, 1826. He was reared on a farm, and received just enough education
to enable him to read,  and at the early age of fifteen years began earning his
own living. He was of a rather roving disposition, and  spent several years'
earnings in traveling in different States. During the Mexican War he spent nine
months in  Capt. Whitfield's company, and at the end of that time was
discharged from active duty on account of sickness,  and then returned to
Tennessee, and in 1847 came to Franklin County, Ark., locating soon after in
Johnson  County, where he was married, in 1852, to Miss Lennet Wood, who was
born in North Carolina October 16,  1825. Since 1857 they have resided in
Sebastian County, where he owns a fertile farm of 100 acres, with about  fifty
acres under cultivation. In April, 1862, he enlisted in Capt. Oliver Bassham's
company, Confederate  service, [p.1347] and at the end of three months joined
Capt. Leister's company, but two months later this  company split, and Capt.
Leister joined the Federal forces, Mr. Milam was then elected captain of the
company.  At Mark's Mill, in Bradley County, Ark., he was leading a battalion
of advance skirmishers, and in the heat of  the battle he was struck by a
minie-ball in the left ankle joint, the bone being so shattered that his leg
had to be  amputated a little below the knee. This was done in April, 1863. He
has been the hero of two wars, and is yet  hale and hearty, and has never had
to pay a doctor's bill for himself in his life. He is a stanch Democrat in
politics, and is the father of seven children: Emeline P. (deceased), Kansas,
William M. (deceased), John, Wood B., Lennet A. and Frances E. Mrs. Milam is a
member of the Methodist Church.