Here is a portrait of Sarah Dorsey's mother, Mary Routh of Routhland Plantation near Natchez, Miss. She was first married to Thomas Ellis, Sarah's father, but widowed. She then married Charles Dahlgren, who outlived her.

She was born in 1813 and died in 1858. After Routhland Plantation burned, it was re-built by Mary and her second husband Charles. It is now called "Dunleith."

Charles Dahlgren, Sarah's step-father, was the brother of Admiral Dahlgren who invented the Dahlgren Gun. Charles was a Confederate General, his brother a Union Admiral; they were the sons of the Norwegian Royal Ambassador to the US in the early 1800s and were descended from Norwegian and Swedish aristocracy. Charles re-married but the relationship between Sarah and her siblings and her half-siblings (by her mother and Charles) and the children of Charles's second marriage were cordial. However, when Sarah died her full brother, Stephen Percy Ellis, contested her will.

The story is discussed in Herschel Gower's biography of Sarah's step-father, "Charles Dahlgren of Natchez" (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002).

© Copyright 2005, Ritz