The following was published in the Columbus Sunday Enquirer (Georgia) on 11 July 1875, one day after the death of Gen. Henry Lewis Benning, namesake of Fort Benning ( now known as Fort Moore ). GENERAL HENRY L. BENNING. HE DIES AT 3 A.M. YESTERDAY -- JURIST, SOLDIER, GENTLEMAN -- BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. After our paragraph of yesterday morning it was a matter of no surprise for our people to hear that Gen. Benning was dead. He breathed his last about three o'clock Saturday morning. The day before he had been on the streets, but he never rallied from the fai[n]ting fit in F. L. Brook's drug-store. He was not even conscious after 4 P.M. Friday. Drs. Colzey and Stanford were with him constantly. The cause seemed to be a sudden giving away of the entire system. Several days before he seemed to be improving rapidly. The General was a tall, powerful man, with white beard and hair, and a true Southerner, every inch of him. Old Billie, the colored man who was in headquarter mess...
Telling the Tales of Tombstones