JAMES T. BENTON II
November 30, 1842- August 23, 1909
FATHER OF MAGGIE BENTON HARPER
My father James T. Harper, grandson to James T. Benton and his namesake, told me. Carolyn Lee Harper, his daughter these stories of his grandpa, that he said he (James T. Benton) had told to him when he was a young boy when they were sitting on the front porch on a summer evening.
James T. Benton had fiery red hair and wore a handlebar mustache. He used to sit on the front porch and tell him about fighting the Indians. He said they were a dirty nasty people, who would go to the bathroom right in the middle of their tent in a hole they had dug. Then when the hole filled up they would just move the tent. That's why, he told him, that you can smell an Indian a mile away. I guess Grandpa Benton had fought the Indians in Georgia and maybe Florida.
James T. Benton fought in the civil war. He was in the 1st Florida Cavalry, Company F, C.S.A. He was a Corporal, but when captured he gave them a different name so they would not know his rank. He told them he was James T. Barton, a private. He was captured November 25, 1863 at the Battle of Missionary Ridge.
After he was captured in Tennessee, he was moved to Rock Island Barracks Prison Camp in Illinois where he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January of 1864. From there he was transferred to Naval rendezvous at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois. Yes! He became a Damn Yankee, a turncoat! With his help we turned into poor folk instead of the ultra rich Harper's that we were meant to be. A Damn Yankee! I can't believe it! My own kin.
Now, that I have that out of my system, we really don't know the circumstances of what he went through. It could have been anything from being threatened with his life or maybe even the choice of not starving to death in a prisoner of war camp. From what I have seen of Andersonville, I don't believe I would have liked to die in one of those places either. We have a picture of James T. Benton I, his wife Margarett King Benton and six of the Benton children, including my grandmother, Maggie Benton Harper. Also included in the picture, standing behind them are three of Margarett King's siblings, Ann, Mary, and William King. Jim Parham, Rosa Mae Harper Parham gave me a copy of it. Annette Goins Gilbert, daughter of Mary Harper Goins had loaned it to Jim.
Records received from the National Archives on his U.S. enlistment states that his physical description was blue eyes, auburn hair, light complexion and 5'9". He was in the Navy and enlisted January 20, 1864 at Rock Island Barracks, Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois on the vessel E.G. Squadron.
Carolyn Lee Harper Johnson
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