After his wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Benson returned home for recovery, but returned. he had a talent as a scout and once stole a colonel's horse on impulse. he was at the battle of Spotsylvania.
Twice he was captured and twice he escaped. The first time, he swam two miles across the Chesapeake Bay and the second time in a 65-foot tunnel under the Union prison camp at Elmira, New York.
After the war, he and his brother walked back to Augusta, neither ever surrendering their rifles.
The Ladies Memorial Association of Augusta had previously erected a monument in the city's cemetery, but wanted a bigger one in a more prominent place. They chose Sgt. Benson to be the model for a Confederate soldier atop the new memorial. The base was 25 feet Georgia granite with a 47-foot obelisk of Italian marble designed by Von Gunden in Philadelphia and carved in Carrara, Italy.
Cost was $17, 331.35 and it was dedicated October 31, 1878, the same year the Confederate Survivors Association was formed.
Even at the advanced age of 79, Benson was leading Boy Scout Troops into the woods on 15-mile hikes. He died January 1, 1923.
Quite a Fellow. --Old B-Runner
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