Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/293

 BENHAM.

BENJAMIN.

command of the Richmond, on the Asiatic station, and then was assigned to duty at the Portsmouth navy yard, and later to the command of the light- house district of New York. In iy«.5 he was made commodore and commanded the 3Iare Island nary yard, California. Upon his promotion as rear- admiral, in 1890, he was assigned to the command of the East India squadron, and in 1894 of the South Atlantic station, but the special duty of towing the Columbus caravels from Spain to Havana prevented him from reaching his station, and Admiral Stanton had charge in Brazilian waters until he made the mistake of saluting Adniiral Mello's flag in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. Admiral Benham, then in command of the North Atlantic squadron, was sent to take command at that port where his 30urse in pro- tecting American interests was approved. He was retired, April 10, 1894, and on the outbreak of war with Spain in 1898 he was prize com- missioner for the state of Georgia.

BENHAM, Henry Washington, soldier, was born in Connecticut in 1816. He was graduated from West Point with the highest honors in 1837, and the following year received promotion to 1st lieutenant of engineers and engaged on fortifica- tion works. He won a brevet for his bravery at Buena Vista, and in 1848 was promoted to a cap- taincy. In 1853 he was placed on the United States coast survey, and in that .service visited Europe. In 1861 Captain Benham was made en- gineer of the department of the Ohio, and fought in the battle of Carrick's Ford, Va., July 13, 1861, winning a brevet as colonel. His action at New Creek and Carnifex Ferry made hiin brigadier- general. In South Carolina and Georgia he was with the storming parties that captured James Island and Fort Pulaski in 1862, and thereafter was transferred to the north, where he superintended the construction of defensive works. In 1864 he had charge of the pontoon department of the army of the Potomac. In 1865 he attained the rank of Lieutenant-colonel of engineers, of brigadier-general, of major-general by brevet in the U. S. army, and of full major-general of volun- teers. After the war he was engaged on en- gineering work, and invented the picket shovel, and the rapid construction of pontoon bridges by means of " simultaneous bays." In 1883 he was retired from service, and died June 1, 1884.

BENJAMIN, John Forbes, soldier, was born at Cicero, Onondaga county, N. Y., Jan. 23, 1817. In 1845 he removed to Texas, where he remained until 1848, going then to Shelbyville, Mo. He was admitted to the bar, and soon after beginning his practice he was elected to the state legislature, serving in 1850, and again in 1852. He was prom- inent in pohtics, holding several local offices, and in 1856 was chosen a Democratic presidential

elector. The practice of his profession was in- terrupted by the civil war, in which he enlisted at its outbreak. He was promoted from a private soldier to the rank of captain, and later to that of major. In tlie same year, 1862, he was pro- moted lieutenant-colonel. In 1863 and 1864 he was provost-marshal for the 8th district of his state, and in the latter year was elected a representa- tive to the 39th, and was re-elected and served in the 40th and 41st congresses. He then settled in Washington, D. C, where he resumed his law practice, and conducted a bank. He died in Washington March 8, 1877.

BENJAMIN, Judah Philip, lawyer, was born in St. Croix, W. I., Aug. 11, 1811. He was of English-Jewish parentage, and passed his early years in New Orleans, La., and Wilmington, N. C. He studied at Yale for three years, and read law in New Orleans, \\'here he was admitted to the bar in 1834, and became a member of the law firm of Sli dell, Benjamin & Conrad, which soon acquired an extensive practice. In 1845 he was a member of the convention to revise the state constitution and in 1853 was elect ed to the U. S. senate as a Whig ; but during the anti-slavery agita- tion he became a Democrat. In a con- troversy on the floor of the senate he antagonized Jefferson Davis and would have been involved in a duel with that senator, had not Mr. Davis made an apology in the presence of the assembled sena- tors. He was re-elected to the senate in 1859, but withdrew with John Slidell at the secession of Louisiana in 1861. During his term he advocated the Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854. but afterwards declared that the decision of Judge Taney in the Dred-Scott case had set aside the principle of popular sovereignty. In February, 1861. he was appointed attorney-general of the provisional government of the Confederate states, and in August, 1861, was transferred to President Davis's cabinet as secretary of war, to succeed L. P. Walker; but being subsequently accused of incompetence by the Confederate congress, he resigned, and was appointed secretary of state, which portfolio he held until the Confederacy was broken up. He fled from Richmond on the over- throw of the Confederate government, escaped to the Bahamas, and thence to England, in Septem- ber, 1865. He then studied Enghsh law, entering Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1866, and was called to the

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