Henry Lewis Benning

Henry Lewis Benning

Henry Lewis Benning (born April 2, 1814 in Columbia County , Georgia , † July 10, 1875 in Columbus , Georgia) was an American lawyer and Confederate general in the Civil War .

Life

Benning was born on his parents' plantation and studied law at the University of Georgia . After graduating in 1834, he settled as a lawyer in Columbus, where he married Mary Howard Jones in 1839. The couple had ten children, but only five of them survived their father. One of his sons died in the civil war.

Benning was also politically active and a staunch opponent of abolitionism . In 1851 he was run as a Democratic candidate for election to Congress , but was not elected. In 1853 he became an associate judge at the Supreme Court of Georgia , which he immediately declared equal to the Supreme Court of the United States , to whose decisions he therefore felt not bound. After Abraham Lincoln was elected US President , Benning represented his county in the Secession Assembly and voted for Georgia to secede from the Union. As a representative of his state, he also traveled to Virginia to convince local politicians to join the Confederation.

After the beginning of the Civil War, Benning set up a regiment (the 17th Georgia Volunteer Infantry ) in August 1861 , and was made its colonel. With this unit he went to Virginia to join the later Army of Northern Virginia . Since Benning still refused to interfere with any central authority in the affairs of the states, he declared the Confederate Conscription Act to be invalid and was only lucky enough to avoid court martial . Benning fought in Robert Augustus Toombs ' brigade in the Second Battle of Manassas and in the Battle of Antietam , where he took the lead after Toombs' wounding and was able to defend an important bridge until reinforcements arrived. For this achievement he was nicknamed Old Rock by his men and was promoted to Brigadier General in January 1863. In General John Bell Hood's division , Benning took part in the Battle of Gettysburg and the Chickamauga . In May 1864 he was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness , but returned to his brigade in October and commanded them until the surrender of Appomattox in April 1865.

After the war ended, Benning went back to Columbus, where he found his house burned down. Since he had to support the family of his fallen brother-in-law as well as his own, he resumed his legal practice and continued until he died of a stroke on the way to court ten years later. Today's US military base and infantry school in Fort Benning near Columbus are named after him.

See also

• List of Confederate Generals in the Civil War
• List of generals of the Union in the Civil War

literature

• David J. Eicher, The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography , University of Illinois, 1997, ISBN 0-252-02273-4
• Richard N. Current, Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 vol.) ( ISBN 0132759918 )
• John H. Eicher & David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands , Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
• Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders , Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5

Web links

• Henry Lewis Benning in the database of Find a Grave (English)