Stephen Vincent Benet – Brigadier General, United States Army

Stephen Vincent Benet of Florida
Appointed from Florida, Cadet, United States Military Academy, 1 July 1845 (3)
Brevet Second Lieutenant of Ordnance, 1 July 1849
Second Lieutenant, 10 July 1851
First Lieutenant, 1 July 1853
Captain, 3 August 1861
Major, 22 December 1866
Brigadier General, Chief of Ordnance, 23 June 1874
Breveted Major and Lieutenant Colonel, 13 March 1865, for faithful and meritorious service in the Ordnance Department
Retired 22 January 1891
Died 22 January 1895

Born January 22, 1827. He was a career military officer who fought through the Civil War, eventually being promoted through the ranks to Brigadier General and Chief of United States Army Ordnance.

He was the father of Colonel James Walker Benet, Laurence Vincent Benet, Ensign, United States Navy, and the grandfather of poets Stephen Vincent Benet (who is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington, Connecticut) and Laura Benet.

The General died on January 22, 1895 and was buried in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery.

Stephen Vincent Benet, soldier, born in St. Augustine, Fla., 22 January 1827. He studied at Hallowell’s school in Alexandria, Virginia, then at the University of Georgia, and at the United States Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1849, standing third in his class.

He was appointed to the Ordnance Corps, and served at the Watervliet arsenal, at Washington, at Frankford arsenal, again at Washington, and then at the St. Louis arsenal.

In 1859 he became Assistant Professor of Geography, History, and Ethics at West Point, and from 1861 till 1864 was instructor of Ordnance and the Science of Gunnery, after which, until 1869, he was in command of Frankford arsenal.

In 1869 he was made Assistant to the Chief of Ordnance, and in 1874, on the death of the Chief of the Department, he succeeded to the place, with the rank of Brigadier General. He translated Jomini’s ” Political and Military History of the Campaign of Waterloo” (New York, 1853), and he is the author of a treatise on “Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial” (1862), and “Electro-Ballistic Machines and the Schultze Chronoscope” (1866).

BENET, STEPHEN V

• BRIG GEN USA
• DATE OF DEATH: 01/22/1895
• BURIED AT: SECTION S W/C  SITE LOT 154
  ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

BENET, LAURA

• DATE OF DEATH: 01/09/1900
• BURIED AT: SECTION 1  SITE 154ES
• ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  WIFE OF SV BENET, CHF. ORDNANCE

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard