Name Benjamin Graves Role Politician | Died 1813 | |
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Benjamin Franklin Graves (1771–1813) was a politician and military leader in early 19th-century Kentucky. During the War of 1812, Graves served as a Major in the 2nd Battalion, 5th Kentucky Volunteer regiment. Together with other officers, he commanded relatively inexperienced Kentucky troops in the Battle of Frenchtown (also known as the Battle of the River Raisin) in Michigan Territory. This battle had the highest number of American fatalities in the war: of 1000 American troops, nearly 400 were killed in the conflict on January 22 and 547 were taken prisoner. The next day an estimated 30-100 Americans were killed by Native Americans after having surrendered.
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Graves was among Americans known to be taken by the Potawatomi on a forced march to Detroit, Michigan. He is believed to have died on the way, as he disappeared from the historic record. Because so many men of the Kentucky elite were lost in this battle, it has been commemorated in the state. Graves is included among the officers memorialized on Kentucky's Military Monument to All Wars in the state capital of Frankfort. In 2009, the Michigan area was commemorated as the River Raisin National Battlefield Park, the only such park to mark a War of 1812 site, although others are noted as national or state historic sites.
Personal life and politics
Graves was born in Virginia's Spotsylvania County in 1771. After the American Revolutionary War, he moved in 1791 to frontier Kentucky with his siblings and widowed mother. among them was his brother Thomas Coleman Graves. They settled in Fayette County, where he was elected to two terms (1801 and again in 1804) as state representative. This was in the central Bluegrass region, one of the first areas to be settled. He married Polly Dudley, daughter of Ambrose Dudley and Ann Parker. Together they had six children.
Military career and presumed death
During the War of 1812, Graves served under Colonel William Lewis as Major in the 2nd Battalion, 5th Kentucky Volunteer regiment. He was commanding officer of Nathaniel G. S. Hart. Nearly one thousand Kentucky troops were sent to Michigan Territory in a United States effort to take Detroit, which was under the control of the British. On January 18, they defeated British and Native American forces at Frenchtown south of Detroit, despite relative inexperience on the battlefield.
In fighting at the second Battle of Frenchtown on January 22, when the British and Native Americans ambushed the Americans, Graves was shot in the knee; he bandaged his wound himself and told his men to continue fighting. After the death of Colonel John Allen, field command of the Kentuckians came to rest on Graves and Major George Madison. Nearly 400 Americans were killed during the battle, the highest number of Americans in any single battle of the war, and 547 were taken prisoner at surrender.
Upon General Winchester's orders, Graves and hundreds of other survivors surrendered to British forces. His younger brother, Lieutenant Thomas Coleman Graves (a 1st Lieutenant of the 17th Infantry), was killed during the battle. After the surrender, British officer Captain William Elliott, a Loyalist, asked to borrow Graves' horse, saddle and bridle. Elliott promised that he would send back additional help for the wounded Americans but the help never arrived.
On January 23, Graves and other injured Americans were captured by the Potawatomi during the River Raisin Massacre. Graves, Timothy Mallory, Samuel Ganoe, and John Davenport, were all held as prisoners with Mallory and Ganoe later escaping. The next day Graves was among the prisoners being marched to Detroit, but his name subsequently disappears from written records.
Graves was reportedly seen near Detroit on the River Rouge. He was not definitively heard from again and is presumed to have died during the march. The Powatatomi were known to have killed prisoners who could not keep up. Other Americans died on the forced march to Fort Malden in Ontario.
General Winchester wrote a February 11, 1813, letter about the battle to the US Secretary of War, which was widely published in American newspapers at that time. He mentioned Major Graves and his fellow officers, saying "they defended themselves to the last with great gallantry". After Graves' disappearance while a prisoner, for years "his widow kept a light burning at the window of their home" in case he would return.