Confederatevets.com

Madsion M. Dent, known to his comrades and friends as "Mat" Hassey, was born August 28, 1842, and died at his residence, in Montgomery, Ala., December 23, 1919, aged seventy-seven years. When the war began in 1861 he was "in the very May morn of youth, ripe for exploits and dangerous enterprises"; and when Governor Moore of Alabama, at the request of the Florida Governor, called for troops to aid in the seizing the forts and navy yard at Pensacola, Fla., he was among the first to volunteer. After completing this enlistment and before he left Pensacola, he reenlisted in Felix Robertson's Alabama field battery, known as Dent's Battery, as Capt. S. H. Dent succeeded to its command when Robertson was promoted. Comrade Hassey has to his credit participation in the campaigns and engagements at Shiloh, Tenn., April 7, 1862; Farmington, Miss., May 9, 1862; Perryville, Ky., October 8, 1862; Murfreesboro, Tenn., December 31, 1862; Dalton to Atlanta, Ga., and attending battles; Hood's fearful Nashville campaign and attending battles and suffering, 1864, ending with the Mobile campaign in the spring of 1865. Through all the hard campaigns and bloody battles "Mat" Hassey was a faithful Confederate soldier. When the end came he returned to a desolated home country and devoted his loyal efforts to rebuilding its waste places and ridding it of the carpetbaggers who swooped down on it and exerted themselves to suck out the little vitality left. He was a forebearing husband and kind father, a zealous Church worker, and loyal to his Confederate comrades. May he rest in peace!

[John Purifoy]