"What do we care if we were expelled from college, Miss Scarlett? The war's going to start soon, so we would have left college anyhow."
Lieutenant Brenton "Brent" Tarleton (c. 1842 - July 1863) was one of the four sons of Beatrice and Jim Tarleton, most known for being Stuart's twin, both known to court Scarlett O'Hara and before Brent's death at the Battle of Gettysburg, he was engaged to Carreen O'Hara.
Appearance[]
Like all Tarletons, the twins had red hair. Brent looked identical to his brother Stuart, and they both had long legs, being 6'2". They had brown cheeks from playing in the sun.
Personality[]
Both Brent and Stuart are well-mannered, but rambunctious. They pulled many pranks and were energetic and disobedient to their teachers. In their studies, they were both lazy. Both Stuart and Brent were naive in having dreams of glorious battlefields, being excited about the war coming. Later on, they became more realistic and grave about the situation, after losing their brother.
Biography[]
Brent was raised with his twin-brother Stuart and their six siblings by their mother Beatrice Tarleton on the Fairhill plantation in Georgia. From childhood on, the twins were frequent guests at Tara, and flirted with Scarlett O'Hara. Later, Brent developed a relationship with her younger sister Carreen O'Hara. Because of Carreen, Tony Fontaine once shot him in the leg.
By 1861, Brent and Stuart had been expelled from the Universities of Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia. Tom and Boyd had followed them to each university, refusing to be educated by people who wouldn't accept their younger brothers. Both twins were very excited for the war to start and enlisted along with their brothers.
All things changed when Boyd Tarleton died in Virginia, his body undiscovered. Both twins returned home for furlough in a depressed mood. A minie ball had gone through Brent's shoulder and he was very much injured when he returned. It was around this time that he got secretly engaged to the sweet Carreen.
When the brothers returned to the front, they all died in The Battle of Gettysburg (1863). The twins and their brother Tom died minutes from each other. All four boys were buried at Fairhill. Between the graves of Brent and Stuart was a stone which read: “They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.”
Trivia[]
- In the film, Fred Crane was wrongly credited as Stuart Tarleton. It was deemed too costly to repair this mistake by the time the film came out.
- We learn very little of the romance between Brent and Carreen because the novel is told from Scarlett's perspective, who assumes Brent still holds feelings for her and who dismisses Carreen's feelings and mourning for him as childish.
- Beatrice Tarleton knew about Carreen and Brent and approved of the match.