Confederate scout and sharpshooter Berry Greenwood Benson witnessed
the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, retreated with Lee's Army to
its surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and missed little of the
action in between. This memoir of his service is a remarkable
narrative, filled with the minutiae of the soldier's life and paced
by a continual succession of battlefield anecdotes. Three main
stories emerge from Benson's account: his reconnaissance exploits,
his experiences in battle, and his escape from prison. Though not
yet eighteen years old when he left his home in Augusta, Georgia,
to join the army, Benson was soon singled out for the abilities
that would serve him well as a scout. Not only was he a crack shot,
a natural leader, and a fierce Southern partisan, but he had a kind
of restless energy and curiosity, loved to take risks, and was an
instant and infallible judge of human nature. His recollections of
scouting take readers within an arm's reach of Union trenches and
encampments. Benson recalls that while eavesdropping he never
failed to be shocked by the Yankees' foul language; he had never
heard that kind of talk in a Confederate camp! Benson's
descriptions of the many battles in which he fought - including
Cold Harbor, the Seven Days', Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg,
Spotsylvania, and Petersburg - convey the desperation of a full
frontal charge and the blind panic of a disorganized retreat. Yet,
in these accounts, Benson's own demeanor under fire is manifest in
the coolly measured tone he employs. A natural writer, Benson
captures the dark absurdities of war in descriptions such as those
of hardened veterans delighting in the new shoes and other
equipment they found oncorpse-littered battlefields. His clothing
often torn by bullets, Benson was also badly bruised a number of
times by spent rounds. At one point, in May 1863, he was wounded
seriously enough in the leg to be hospitalized, but he returned to
the field before full recuperation. Benson was captured behind
enemy lines in May 1864 while on a scouting mission for General
Lee. Confined to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland, he escaped after
only two days and swam the Potomac to get back into Virginia.
Recaptured near Washington, D.C., he was briefly held in Old
Capitol Prison, then sent to Elmira Prison in New York. There he
joined a group of ten men who made the only successful tunnel
escape in Elmira's history. After nearly six months in captivity or
on the run, he rejoined his unit in Virginia. Even at Appomattox,
Benson refused to surrender but stole off with his brother to North
Carolina where they planned to join General Johnston. Finding the
roads choked with Union forces and surrendered Confederates, the
Benson brothers ultimately bore their unsurrendered rifles home to
Augusta. Berry Benson first wrote his memoirs for his family and
friends. Completed in 1878, they drew on his - and partially on his
brother's - wartime diaries, as well as on letters that both
brothers had written to family members during the war. The memoirs
were first published in book form in 1962 but have long been
unavailable. This edition, with a new foreword by the noted Civil
War historian Herman Hattaway, will introduce this compelling story
to a new generation of readers.
General
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