Sutton, Benjamin F., 1819-1885

Benjamin F. Sutton was a farmer, officer in the Mississippi 1st Infantry (militia) during the Civil War, and state Representative in 1865.

Born on May 3, 1819 in Georgia, Sutton was a farmer living in Rankin County, Mississippi by 1850. During the Civil War, he served as a captain of the Mississippi 1st Infantry and was promoted to the rank of Major by April 1863. That same year, he signed a petition protesting the militia's transfer to Confederate service. In August 1864, he raised Company B of the 1st Battalion Mississippi Infantry (militia), carrying a rank of captain, and he maintained this rank through the end of the war.

After the war, he became a state Representative for Rankin County in 1865, but by 1870, he returned to his work as a farmer in Brandon, Mississippi. Sutton was married to Louisa C. (Boggan) Sutton, who preceded him in death in 1873. The pair had at least four children. Benjamin F. Sutton died on January 28, 1885 in Rankin County. He was buried in the Berry-Sutton Cemetery in Rankin County, Mississippi.

(U.S. Census Record for Rankin County, Mississippi, 1850; U.S. Census Record for Brandon, Mississippi, 1870; Major B. F. Sutton to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus, April 28, 1863, Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi, mdah_762-948-07-54; W. W. Kone to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark, January 11, 1865, Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi, mdah_767-953-09-013; Petition from the Soldiers of the 1st Regiment, Mississippi Minute Men to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus, undated, Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi, mdah_757-943-09-33; Petition to Mississipp Governor Charles Clark, 1865, Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi, mdah_768-950-09-03; FindaGrave; Howell, Jr., Military History of Mississippi, 6)

Benjamin F. Sutton belonged to the following social groups: