By J. Janice Coleman, Ph.D.

Special to The Vicksburg Post

 

I am an English professor at Alcorn State University. This past semester my composition students wrote a series of family history papers, the last one from a picture.

“Get a picture of an individual family member or one featuring multiple generations,” the prompt asked. “Study the picture, and then tell what it says about your family.”

While reading these papers a few days ago, I took a break to run some errands, which included making a stop at a local thrift store.

When I first saw the picture in the dusty frame, I stared at it with many thoughts running through my head: “Who are these well-decorated military men?” “What specific roles have they played in their service to our country?” “Why is this picture in a thrift store rather than in an album of one or the other of the men’s families?”

And finally, “Should I purchase this picture?”

Not wanting to have customer’s remorse — that nagging feeling that one gets when one realizes all too late that she should have bought an item but didn’t — I bought the picture, took it home, and set out to identify the two men.

I could clearly see the name on the uniform of the man on the left: Peixotto. Using the Internet and other reliable sources, I was able to find out much more about him.

Major General Ernest Dishman Peixotto was born in July 1929. He had a distinguished career in the U.S. Army. He served as commander of Waterways Experiment Station here in Vicksburg from 1970 to 1973 and later published an overview of his management experience.

In 2010, he published Ernest C. Peixotto: American Artist, a biography of his uncle in which he recounts some of the notable achievements of the elder Peixotto, who gained international fame as a painter of murals, and he also illustrated a book for President Theodore Roosevelt. Ernest D. Peixotto, now 87, lives in Palm City, Fla., with his wife Elizabeth. They have two children, one of whom, son Ernest C. Peixotto, was a member of Vicksburg’s H. V. Cooper High School class of l972.

The man featured on the right in the picture was not so easy to identify because his name, as it appears on his uniform, was unclear, yet I could tell that it was either Dean or Dunn. Because I was unable to read the name, finding out whom he was required more extensive research. I had already assembled a team of co-researchers at the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum that was composed of Kathy Mabry, a park ranger, and museum volunteers Mary Hopkins and Thomas Stallings. Stallings, a retired Army sergeant, went to the Internet, typed in some key words, which included the name Dunn, and, in a matter of minutes, said, “Here he is right here.”

I moved closer so that I could see the man, and yes, that was indeed the man, Lt. General Carroll Hilton Dunn, who was posing in the picture. Dunn was born in Lake Village, Ark., in 1916. His career in Army engineering spanned 35 years, from 1938 to 1973.

Like Peixotto, he too was once Commander of Waterways Experiment Station, serving from 1952 to 1955. Dunn died in 2003 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Interestingly enough, in my quest to identify and learn more about Peixotto and Dunn, the latter’s name provides an interesting play on words. This family history research is done!

Editor’s note:  Ernest D. Peixotto of Palm City, Florida, Ernest C. Peixotto Jr. of Chantilly, Virginia, and Carroll H. Dunn Jr. of Birmingham, Alabama, also contributed to the research efforts of this article.