Notes from the Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 Meeting November 8th.
Benjamin destroyed all of his writings except those which were published which was a common practice for lawyers of that period and his surviving personal correspondence was limited to his wife's letters so there is very little first record/account of his life.
Benjamin was born on August 8, 1811 in St.Croix. When he was 6 or 7 years old his family moved to Fayetteville NC and then to Charleston SC as a boy. His mother and father were Spanish Jews who were run out of Spain during the Inquisition fleeing first to England and then to St.Croix. Judah had a good education at the Fayetteville Academy and became learned in Reformed Judaism. He applied to Yale University at the age of 14 completing the admission requirements including an oral exam and translating a chapter of a book of the New Testament Bible from Latin to English. After three years he inexplicably left Yale despite a good academic record perhaps because of gambling.
He left Yale and moved to New Orleans and went to work for a Jewish storekeeper helping him with his accounting but soon started studying law while also teaching the local Creoles English. It was in this teaching that he met a young Creole girl Natalie and they eventually married although she was Catholic and he was a practicing Jew. They had one child, a daughter Ninette who was raised Catholic.
About a month after marrying, he got his law license and a year later argued his first case in front of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Benjamin and Thomas Slidell published the first law digest of the law cases of the state of Louisiana enumerating principles used in the determination of the cases. Their system cataloging the cases in the digest is still used today.
He later purchased Belle Chasse plantation, a sugar plantation and developed a process for refining cane to sugar. Natalie and Judah separated soon after and he set her up with an apartment in Paris, France. Judah would travel there three or four times a year to see her, requiring ling ocean voyages for passage.
Benjamin was elected a Senator from Louisiana and there in Washington DC met Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina and they got along very well. At one point though, Davis and Benjamin found themselves on opposite sides of a debate and things escalated to the point where Benjamin challenged Davis to a duel. Davis subsequently apologized though and they became lifelong friends thereafter.
Benjamin opposed secession but followed his state of Louisiana and when Davis was elected President, he appointed Benjamin Attorney General. Benjamin developed that role to its modern interpretation including writing opinions, prosecuting cases and, advising the President. He was later appointed Secretary of War and was accomplished in managing the logistics of that position including provisioning the Army, working trade agreements with countries even including with the Yankees undercover. Davis did not adhere to Benjamin's advice and criticism on appointment of his generals so Davis eventually moved Benjamin out of that role into Secretary of State.
Benjamin was a skilled negotiator successfully engaging Europe nations in recognition of the Confederacy. At the end of the war, when Lee informed Davis he could no longer defend Richmond, the Confederate government evacuated. Benjamin assumed the role of Secretary of the Treasury helping to remove the remaining gold which only amounted to about $50000, sewing the gold into his overcoat. It was decided around May 6, 1865 that Benjamin would attempt to escape and take the gold to a British protectorate. On May 13th he arrived in Monticello FL and abandoned his carriage and was nearly captured by Federal troops. He survived a sinking ship and made his way thru Cuba to the Bahamas pretending to be a Frenchman fleeing the war. On the 30th of August, he reached England where he settled. He became a successful barister retiring after a series of heart attacks. He died on May 6, 1884 in Paris in his wife's home and was buried in a Catholic cemetery in Paris.
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