BENTON BADGLEY was born About 1826 in Highland County, Ohio. It was here that he married ELIZA JANE BORDEN on October 19, 1848. During the 1850 Census Benton and Eliza are living in White Oak Twp. with their 1 year old daughter Caroline. Benton is 24 years old and his occupation is Cooper, his wife is listed at 23 years of age.

Benton first enlisted in the Civil War in 1861 and he died April 27, 1865 in the explosion of the Union Steamer Sultana, leaving 10 children ranging in age from 16 years to an infant.

CIVIL WAR : Enlisted 1st
At the time Benton Badgley enlisted, he lived at New Hope in Brown County, Ohio and enlisted at Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio on the Sixteenth day of November, 1861. He was a Corporal of Captain S. G. W. Peterson, Company K, 48th regiment of Volunteer Infantry.

Note : The 48th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry was recruited from Highland County and the surrounding areas of southwestern Ohio in the Fall of 1861, and the regiment organized in October at Camp Dennison. The next April, as part of General Sherman's division, they find themselves in the middle of the Confederate surprise attack at Shiloh, Tennessee. Benton was wounded in the battle of Shiloh and was discharged by reason of a surgeon's certificate of disability, Sept. 9, 1862.

CIVIL WAR : Enlisted 2nd.
Benton Badgley enlisted and was mustered into service as a private at Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, on September 25, 1864, for a period of one year. Captain Wolf's 178th Regiment of Ohio Infantry which subsequently became Company G of the 175th Regiment.

BENTON BADGLEY : CIVIL WAR FILE:
Benton's name appears on a "Muster and Descriptive Roll of a Detachment of U. S. Voluteers forwarded for the 178 Regiment Ohio Infantry" as follows: Roll dated Hillsboro, Ohio, Sept. 25, 1864. Where born: Highland Co., Ohio; Age: 39 y'rs; Occupation: Cooper; When enlisted: 25 Sept. 1864; For what period enlisted: 1 year; Eyes: Blue; Hair: Dark; Complexion: Dark; Height: 5 ft. 8 in.; When Mustered in: 25 September 1864.

Benton was taken prisoner by Rebel General Nathan Bedford Forest's troops at Blockhouse # 14 on the Tennessee & Alabama Rail Road on or about November 25, 1864, and remained in a rebel prison until the end of the war. He was exchanged in April, 1865, at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

He and hundreds of other exchanged prisoners were put on the Union Steamer, Sultana, to be transported home. The Sultana had come from New Orleans to Vicksburg to pick up exchanged prisoners of war. At Vicksburg it received on board 1,965 federal soldiers and 35 officers just released from the rebel prisons at Cahaba, Alabama and Macon and Andersonville, Georgia.

Benton Badgley was killed on April 27, 1865, when the Sultana's boilers exploded at about 3:00 AM, on the Mississippi River, they were about 8 miles north of Memphis, Tennessee.

Roll of Honor - 175th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry Name : Badgly, Benton - Company : G - Rank : Pvt - Date: April 27, 1865 - Burial : On Steamer Sultana

He left behind his wife Eliza and the 10 children listed here. Caroline born 1849 - Walker W. born 1850 - Rachel E. born 1851 - Lilly born 1853 - William M. born 1855 - Clarinda born 1857 - Nathanial born 1859 - Sarah B. born 1861 - Mary A. born 1863 and the baby Miriah who was born in January 1865.