Lyman G. Bennett

Lyman G. Bennett
Lyman Gibson Bennett, 1863, as Major, 4th Arkansas Cavalry
Born	1832 Schuyler County, New York, United States
Died	1904 Springfield, Missouri, United States
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1861–1864 (USA)
Rank	Major (USV)
Unit	36th Illinois Volunteer Infantry 4th Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge Price's Raid Sioux Wars Powder River Expedition Battle of Alkali Creek Battle of Dry Fork Battle of the Little Powder River
Other work	Teacher, Surveyor, and Civil Engineer.

Lyman Gibson Bennett, (1832 – 1904) was an American army officer, teacher, surveyor, and civil engineer, from Schuyler County, New York, who served in the United States army during the American Civil War.

Early life

Lyman Gibson Bennett was born in 1832, in Schuyler County, New York. He was educated in New York State, then in 1849 when he was 17, his family moved to Oswego, in Kendall County, Illinois. Lyman taught school for five years, then trained as a surveyor and civil engineer. He worked as a railroad surveyor, and later served as the county surveyor of Kendall County, Illinois. Bennett spent most of 1857 in Minnesota in an unrewarding attempt to homestead, first near Winona, then in the Faribault District near Ashland. He supported himself by selling maps through subscription and by employment as a member of the surveying team for the proposed Transit Railroad. He terminated his experience in Minnesota by returning to Illinois late in 1857 to resume teaching school.^[1]

American Civil War

In 1861, Bennett enlisted as a Corporal in Co. E of the 36th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a three-year unit known as the “Fox River Regiment.” Military authorities took advantage of his skills, assigning him to engineering duties at Rolla and St. Louis, Missouri throughout late 1861 and early 1862. His detached duty, which included map-making and work on fortifications, ended in time for Bennett to join his regiment at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 7, 1862. He was permanently detached from the 36th Illinois after the battle to serve on the engineering staff of Brigadier General Samuel Ryan Curtis. He sketched the battlefield and was the cartographer of the Army of the Southwest as it marched across Missouri to Helena, Arkansas. In 1863, Bennett took a commission as major of the 4th Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (United States), which he helped raise and organize. He resigned and was discharged in August 1864. As a civilian, Bennett again joined the engineering department of General Samuel R. Curtis, then commanding the Department of Kansas. He mapped the 1864 battlefields of Price's Missouri raid, and was sent to inspect the army’s installations along the stage line to Denver.^[2]

Sioux Wars

In 1865, Major General Grenville M. Dodge ordered the Powder River Expedition as a campaign against the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho. It was commanded by Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor, and the strategy was to have three independently marching columns of soldiers. Bennett was given the position of the chief engineering officer of Colonel Nelson D. Cole's column, the Right, or Eastern Column, of the Expedition. That column operated from July 1, to October 4, 1865. As the chief engineering officer of the Powder River Expedition, the over 1,400 soldiers depended on his experience to build roads and bridges to travel by and transport over 150 wagons during the expedition. He also mapped the route of the column, with the fact that some of the land he mapped had never been mapped before. During the Campaign, he was at the Battle's of Alkali Creek, Dry Fork, and the Little Powder River. These engagements occurred on September 1, 8, and 10, 1865, respectfully. At the battle of Dry Fork, on September 8, Major Bennett rode his horse with a group of dismounted soldiers that were deployed in skirmish lines, and made himself a conspicuous target being mounted on horseback around soldiers on the ground. He was nearly hit by multiple bullets fired by Native American's that were aimed at him, with one passing by his head, and another striking the ground beneath his horse. Lyman then led the final charge of the engagement in which his soldiers drove the remaining warriors off of a bluff and away from the battlefield. On September 12, 1865, Bennett was also the first person to have described in writing the Terrett Butte on the Powder River, when the expedition marched past it.^[3]

Later life

Bennett left the army’s employment in 1866 to return to Illinois. He moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1880, purchasing a farm on the west edge of the city. He continued to work as an engineer and surveyor, platting additions to the City of Springfield, and surveying railroad lines in Missouri and Oklahoma. Lyman Gibson Bennett died in Springfield, Missouri in 1904, and is buried there.^[4]

Legacy

The historically accurate 283 page novel Powder River Odyssey: Nelson Cole's Western Campaign of 1865, The Journals of Lyman G. Bennett and Other Eyewitness Accounts by David E. Wagner (2009), was written almost entirely from the journal that Bennett kept in 1865.

See also

• 36th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment
• 4th Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, (United States)
• Powder River Expedition

Notes

References