Benjamin Franklin Graves (1771 - aft. 1813)

Born 1771 in Spotsylvania, Virginia Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Polly (Dudley) Graves — married [date unknown] in Fayette County, Kentucky

Died after 25 Jan 1813 after age 42 in French Town, Oceana, Michigan Territory, United States [uncertain]

Biography

Benjamin Graves is Notable.

Benjamin Graves has English ancestors.

Major Benjamin Graves served in the Kentucky Militia in the War of 1812
Service started:
Unit(s): 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Militia
Service ended:

During the War of 1812, Benjamin Graves was commissioned Major of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers. On 22 January 1813, Benjamin Graves fought in the second Battle of Frenchtown at the River Raisin in present-day Michigan. Wounded there, he was taken prisoner. The next day, on January 23, the Potawatomi indians killed many of the wounded prisoners during what became known as the River Raisin Massacre. Benjamin Graves, Timothy Mallory, Samuel Ganoe, and John Davenport, were all held as prisoners, with Mallory and Ganoe later escaping. The next day Benjamin Graves was among the prisoners marched to Detroit despite their wounds, but his name subsequently disappears from written records.

Benjamin Graves was reportedly seen near Detroit on the River Rouge. But as he was not definitively heard from again, he is presumed to have died during the march. The Potawatomi were known to have killed prisoners who could not keep up on such forced marches. Other Americans also 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 Benjamin Graves' disappearance while a prisoner, for years "his widow kept a light burning at the window of their home", in case he would return.

Because so many men of the Kentucky elite were lost in the Battle of Frenchtown, it has been commemorated in the state. The area of the battlefield was established as River Raisin National Battlefield Park, the only National Battlefield Park to commemorate a battle of the War of 1812

Benjamin Graves is included among the officers memorialized on Kentucky's Military Monument to All Wars in the state capital of Frankfort, in Frankfort Cemetery. Kentucky's Graves County was named in his honor. Several counties are named after Kentuckians killed at the Battle of the River Raisin. Historical Marker #869 in Mayfield commemorates the establishment of Graves County, which in 1823/1824 was named in honor of Major Benjamin Graves, a War of 1812 veteran.

His younger brother, Thomas Graves, was killed in action at River Raisin while fighting in the 17th Kentucky Militia

Son of Joseph Graves and Frances Coleman

Benjamin Graves was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1771. After the American Revolutionary War, he moved in 1791 to frontier Kentucky with his widowed mother and his siblings. They settled in Fayette County, Kentucky where Benjamin Graves was elected to two terms (1801 and again in 1804) as a state representative. This was in the central Bluegrass region, one of the first areas of the state to be settled by European Americans.

Benjamin Graves married Polly Dudley, daughter of Ambrose Dudley and Ann (Parker) Dudley. They were the parents of six known children, they resided in Fayette County, Kentucky

Sources

SECONDARY SOURCE: Family Tree https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GQHV-RLX

Kentucky History Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9hCfok6YM

https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/66

http://genealogytrails.com/ken/graves/history1.html

http://genealogytrails.com/ken/graves/bfg.html

https://www.riverraisinbattlefield.org/biographies.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Graves_(soldier)

By Cemetery,_Military_Monument-3.jpg: Gburchbarkerderivative work:  Chzz  ► - Cemetery,_Military_Monument-3.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17568686