Lieutenant Colonel Augustus Griffin Bennett Sr.

Augustus Griffin Bennett enlisted as a Private in Company B, of the 31st Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry in 1861. He was promoted soon to First Lieutenant and then to Captain. He was in service at the siege of Yorktown, with Casey's Division at Seven Pines, and in the battle of Malvern Hill. In 1863, he was made Lieutenant Colonel in the Third Regiment of South Carolina Colored Volunteers. After the Third and Fourth Regiments were consolidated as the 21st U.S. Colored Infantry, he was in command of the combined Regiment much of the time until the end of the war.

Colonel Bennettalso was in command of Morris Island during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina. His account of the surrender of Charleston is given in the War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Series I, Volume 47, Part 1, pages 1018-1020): "I had no troops that could be available under two hours, as except in a few pontoon-boats there were no means whatever of landing troops near the enemy's works or into the city...I landed at Mills' Wharf, Charleston, at 10 a.m." Bennett then wrote he had only five officers and 22 men with him. While waiting for reinforcements, he observed a small boat with a flag of truce headed toward Morris Island. He intercepted this boat, which contained a "member of the common council" with a letter from the mayor to the "General Commanding" US forces on Morris Island requesting assistance in maintaining law and order. Colonel Bennett responded that he would do all he could to render assistance.

Colonel Bennett relocated to San Jose, California after the war and entered politics. He also was an official with the reception committee here in San Jose when former President U.S. Grant visited San Jose on September 26, 1879. According to Eugene Sawyer's book entitled, The History of Santa Clara County (1922, p. 129): "a great ovation was given to Gen. U.S. Grant...the torn, tattered and faded battle flag carried by D.C. Vestal, as color-bearer of Phil Sheridan Post, excited much comment, and its history would not be out of place here. It belonged in 1864 to the Twenty-first Regiment, South Carolina Colored Volunteers, commanded by Col. A.G. Bennett, afterwards of San Jose, and was the first Union flag raised in Charleston after that city's surrender to and occupation by the Union forces."

Colonel Bennett died in 1897 and a Grand Army of the Republic post in San Jose was named after him. According to the San Jose Mercury Herald (May 30, 1925, page 1), his son, Dr Augustus Griffin Bennett Jr, a Past Department Commander of the Sons of Veterans, owned "much of the equipment used by his father while in the army. His sword and epaulets are there as well as many official papers, photographs of officers in his regiment, Confederate money, and many other souvenirs of Col. Bennett's campaigns. One of the most interesting of the articles in the case in the office is a picture of Col. Bennett's headquarters in Florida which he painted himself. Flags which are preserved here are the banner of the 21st regiment, a flag and the banner of the First Florida regiment." Most of these relics now reside in the San Jose Historical Museum, or with Colonel Bennett's descendants who still live in the San Jose area.

Colonel Bennett also was a member of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Insignia Number 7245 as was his son, Dr. Augustus G. Bennett Jr., Insignia Number 12930.

Photograph and information submitted by Sebastian Nelson, Department of California and the Pacific, SUVCW.

Lieutenant Colonel Augustus Griffin Bennett Sr.