Benjamin Turner, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

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Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

     BENJAMIN TURNER, the subject of this sketch, is a general merchant of
Pineville, La., and was born near that town, in the parish of Rapides, on
December 6, 1839.  His father, also named Benjamin Turner, was a native of
New York City, being the second of three sons, the eldest named Samuel, and
the youngest Levin.  Before he was quite grown, Benjamin left home to seek
his fortune in the world, and never returned to the home of his widowed
mother again.  His mother's maiden name was Hannah Brower, whose ancestry
can be traced back to among the first settlers of New Amsterdam, now the
city of New York.  Her husband was drowned in New York Bay, while out on a
sailing excursion during a storm, leaving a widow and the three children
above named.  Benjamin, after visiting various places, finally located in
Louisiana, and engaged in the mercantile business at Franklin,
Vermilionville (now Lafayette) and Plaquemine.  At Vermilionville, in
March, 1830, he married Miss Nancy Bradley, who was born in Kentucky, but
her father, when she was quite young, removed to Tennessee, and settled
near Nashville, where the family remained until Nancy was grown, when her
father, Terry Bradley, embarked on a flatboat, the primitive mode of
traveling on the Western rivers in those days, and, with his family,
proceeded down the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers into the Mississippi, and,
after making short stops at different landings on his route, he debarked at
Plaquemine, where he located for a while with his family.  Benjamin Turner,
the elder, after meeting with reverses in business, concluded to remove to
Alexandria, La., coming there in 1838.  Shortly afterward he removed to the
pine woods, near the town of Pineville, where he died of congestive fever
on September 17, 1839, leaving a widow and two daughters:  Bithiah and Ava
Rilla, his son, Benjamin, not being born until December following.  Thus
left a widow, with her young and helpless children to raise and educate,
with no means of support wave what she acquired by her untiring industry
and perseverance, with Christian patience she struggled with adversity, and
succeeded in raising two of the children, Bithiah and Benjamin, the second
one, Ava Rilla, having taken sick and died in 1844.  Benjamin, the subject
of this sketch, grew to manhood, receiving in his youth the advantages of
an education obtained from public and private schools at Pineville and
Alexandria, his last tutor having been the late H. S. Losee, a scholarly
gentleman, who afterward became a prominent lawyer of the latter town.  At
the age of fourteen years Benjamin devoted part of his time to learning
telegraphy, but did not remain at that business long.  During this portion
of his life he clerked for his brother-in-law, the late C. W. Boyce, and at
the age of sixteen years he bought a lot of ground and erected a house,
after having undergone several alterations and improvements, he occupies as
his residence at this day.  In 1857, his brother-in-law having quit
merchandising, became the proprietor of the Red River American, a newspaper
published in Alexandria, La., in which office Benjamin went to work and
learned to be a printer.  In 1860, Mr. Boyce having disposed of the
American, established another newspaper in Alexandria, called the
Constitutional, of which our subject became the publisher and assisted as
local editor.  At this post he remained till July, 1861, when he went to
work to help raise a company for the war from Rapides Parish, called the
Westbrook Guards, to which he was elected second lieutenant, which company
proceeded via New Orleans to Camp Moore, La., a camp of instruction, where,
after a few weeks' training in military duties, it was mustered into the
Confederate service and organized as Company E, in the Eleventh Infantry
Regiment, Louisiana Volunteers.  This command was shortly afterward ordered
to Union City, Tenn., where it remained but a few days, when it was ordered
by Gen. Polk, then in command of the Army of Tennessee, to enter Columbus,
Ky., that place being considered a great strategical point, who high "iron
banks" commanded a fine view of the Mississippi, looking toward Cairo.  At
this place our subject was elected first lieutenant, to fill the vacancy
occasioned by the appointment of Lieut. Cazabat to be quartermaster of the
regiment.  Shortly after his promotion he participated with his command in
the battle of Belmont, on the opposite side of the river, in which
engagement the regiment gained some renown and earned for itself the name
of the Bloody Eleventh.  While the battle was raging fiercely, and
disastrously to the Confederate side, the Eleventh was sent across the
river in a transport, and by executing a timely flank movement, succeeded
in turning the tide of battle, and drove the Federals, under Gen. Grant, to
their gunboats and transports, on which they hurriedly embarked and steamed
off up the river to Cairo.  After the evacuation of Columbus, in March,
1862, his regiment was sent to New Madrid, then to Island No. 10, and Fort
Pillow.  While camped on the Tennessee side, opposite Island No. 10, he was
promoted to captain, in place of Capt. Westbrook, resigned.  His regiment
remained but a day or two at Fort Pillow, when it was ordered to Corinth,
Miss., where the Southern armies were concentrating for the great struggle
which culminated at Shiloh.  He commanded his company gallantly in this
battle, and was severely wounded in the head and left shoulder at about 2
o'clock p.m. in the first day's fight.
     After the battle he obtained a leave of absence, and returned to his
home, and after remaining at home some forty days, till he recovered from his
wounds, he rejoined his command, at Corinth.  New Orleans having fallen
soon after he reached his home, he returned to Corinth by steamer, to
Monroe, thence by rail as far as the high water would permit, nearly all
the railroad track between Monroe and Vicksburg being then under water;
thence from Delhi to Vicksburg in a skiff, with Maj. Tom Ochiltree, who was
bearing dispatches from Gen. Sibley to the war department at Richmond.  In
crossing the river to Vicksburg he discovered the first Federal gunboat,
which had just hove in sight from the naval fleet below, and then was
witnessed the preparations which were then just begun for that defense
which characterizes her as the "heroic city."  On reaching his command at
Corinth, he found the Confederate army confronted by that of Gen. Halleck,
and picket firing across the lines was of frequent occurrence, amounting in
some instances to pretty sharp engagements.  Both armies, however, were
very much decimated by sickness at this point, and in the latter part of
May the Confederate army, Gen. Beauregard commanding, concluded to evacuate
Corinth, falling back to Tupelo, Miss., where it remained for some time,
under going a rigid discipline under Gen. Bragg.  His command was next sent
to Chattanooga, where it was disbanded, by order of Gen. Bragg, and its
officers directed to return to their homes, and there to await further
orders from the War Department.  The Secretary of War ordered the regiment
to be reassembled, and the officers proceeded to Chattanooga for that
purpose, when Gen. Bragg would not allow the order to be executed, and the
officers again returned to their homes.  After remaining at home a short
while, Capt. Turner was assigned to duty by Gen. Dick Taylor, whose
headquarters were then at Alexandria, La., and later on he reported to Gen.
E. Kirby Smith, at Shreveport, who put him in charge of the courier lines
in Arkansas, under Gen. Holmes, and afterward under Gen. Magruder.  While
in Arkansas he received authority to get up a company of cavalry, to be
composed of young men under the conscript age, which he succeeded in doing,
and his company was assigned to the First Battalion, Trans-Mississippi
Cavalry, under Maj. Thompson J. Bird, a command composed of young men from
Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, in which he served till the close of the
war, surrendering at Shreveport, in May, 1865.  After the war Capt. Turner
returned to his home at Pineville, and in the fall commenced merchandising
in said town.  February 6, 1868, he was married, in New Orleans, to Miss
Julia M. Ball, the eldest daughter of Dr. William Ball and Julia Wilson
Ball, and the year after his marriage he removed to New Orleans, and for
five years and four months he was with the wholesale drug house of Ball &
Lyons.  While there he purchased some property at Sherman and Denison,
Tex., with a view of going there to locate, but came here instead, in May,
1874.  He again commenced business at Pineville in August, following, and
has been quite successful.  In 1880 he erected his present large, two-story
brick building, and three years later he duplicated the building alongside,
thus making a commodious, double, two-story edifice, occupied by him as a
general store.  Besides owning his store buildings and residence, and other
property in Pineville, he owns some landed property in Rapides and Grant
Parishes, as well as in Texas.  For several years past he has been, and is
at present, a member of the town council of Pineville, was a member of the
parish school board, under Govs. Nichols, Wiltz and McEnery, of which he
was secretary, and then president; he is one of the directors of the
Rapides Bank, of Alexandria, La., and takes a lively interest in all
matters calculated to promote the welfare of his native parish.  He is a
member of the K. of H.  His mother died January 6, 1888, aged seventy-nine
years and two days, and his only surviving sister, Mrs. Bethiah Bryce,
September 22, 1889.  His family, besides his wife, consists of the
following children:  Julia Wilson (who died at New Orleans, when seven
months old), William Ball (now attending Tulane University, of New
Orleans), Benjamin, Jr., Charles, Nannette and Walter.  The latter died in
infancy.  The first three were born in New Orleans, and the three younger
were born at Pineville.