Category Archives: Samuel Nicoll Benjamin

Jacob Lyon, Fort Sanders defender

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Dick Stanley

Simon Lyon of Chicago has written me of his great grandfather, Jacob Lyon, who fought in the defense of Fort Sanders as a member of Lieutenant Benjamin’s battery E of the 2nd U.S. Artillery. Benjamin commanded the defense in the … Continue reading →

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The very ancient design of Fort Sanders

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Dick Stanley

Fort Sanders was the combined work of (first) Confederate engineer  Danville Leadbetter and (second) Union engineer Orlando Poe, with impromptu assistance from Union artilleryman Samuel Nicoll Benjamin. But the overall design, from the fort’s earthen ramparts to the dry ditch surrounding … Continue reading →

Posted in Fort Sanders, Gen. Danville Leadbetter, Orlando Poe, Samuel Nicoll Benjamin, The Northwest Bastion | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Of that en barbette gun that greeted the Rebels

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Dick Stanley

Lieutenant Samuel Nicoll Benjamin, who commanded Fort Sanders while its nominal commander, a New York political general, was drunk in his bombproof, arranged several surprises for the attacking Rebels. One was a Napoleon 12-pounder that could be run up a … Continue reading →

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Civil War armament, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, Fort Sanders, Samuel Nicoll Benjamin | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

One man used an axe

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Dick Stanley

This Harper’s Weekly lithograph is the only picture I know of that shows a Union defender wielding an axe in defense of the Northwest Bastion of Fort Sanders. “One man used an axe,” U.S. Army Lieutenant Samuel Nicoll Benjamin wrote … Continue reading →

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New history: an error and an argument

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Dick Stanley

There’s a new history on the Battle of Fort Sanders, one of the few ever written. It’s Lincoln Memorial University historian Earl J. Hess’s 2012 The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee. I bought a copy to see if … Continue reading →

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Disputes and errors of fact, Fort Sanders, Gen. Lafayette McLaws, Orlando Poe, Samuel Nicoll Benjamin, Seventeenth Mississippi, The Phillips Georgia Legion, Thirteenth Mississippi | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reprise: Bleak House

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Dick Stanley

One reader of the novel recently emailed to say he‘d Googled “Bleak House” and was surprised to see that it still stands. This is an old photo of the Armstrong home—which hosted Gen. Longstreet’s headquarters during the siege—when it was still a … Continue reading →

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Hamilton Fish

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Dick Stanley

Lieutenant Samuel Nicoll Benjamin, commander of the artillery at Fort Sanders and, in fact, of the fort itself during the Confederate attack, later married a daughter of Hamilton Fish of New York City. President Grant chose Fish, a former governor … Continue reading →

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Benjamin’s Battery

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Dick Stanley

Lieutenant Samuel N. Benjamin’s Battery E, Second U.S. Artillery, has gotten short shrift in post-Civil War history. Even in the history of the war—except for Antietam and Fredericksburg—its record was scanted. Rather more has been recorded about it in recent … Continue reading →

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