James John Bench was born in Macks Creek, Camden County, Missouri, on November 29, 1843 from an extramarital affair between John Bench and Mary Elizabeth Johnson Tobey.  He was a Union Civil War veteran who was a successful farmer and landlord in Utica, Missouri.  He married Sarah Elizabeth Reynolds, and they had seven kids:  Sophia, John, Jennie, Rosa, Jesse, Frank, and Charley.  Jim Bench’s biography will be filled out more in time.

James’ Military Service and Invalid Status:  In Dawn, Missouri, on December 1, 1863, 20 year-old James Bench joined the Company I 11th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry for three years.  He was hospitalized from May 30 – August 4, 1864, in Little Rock, Arkansas.  His future brother-in-law Henry C. Reynolds was also in the same hospital at the same time and later provided a statement about James’ illness.  The hospital stay was caused by illness after army surgeon Dr. Slade vaccinated James against smallpox, but the vaccination was tainted with syphilis.

The military knew that sickness could wipe out more people than battle injuries.  In the 11th Regiment, the mortality statistics shows that the most casualties were from illness (“Regiment lost during service 2 Officers and 28 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 5 Officers and 181 Enlisted men by disease. Total 216.”) and so there was a big push to vaccinate soldiers from smallpox.  At that point, doctors vaccinated people by injecting infected pus taken from children with smallpox.  Children were used to ensure no contagion of syphilis, but on the front line, there were no infected children available.  Instead, doctors started injecting the infected pus from soldiers who had smallpox, but some of those soldiers also had syphilis, and the otherwise-well soldiers receiving the vaccine ended up avoiding smallpox but contracting syphilis.  Since syphilis can be passed to one’s children, James claimed in a statement for invalid pension in 1889 that Sophira, John, and Jennie had inherited the disease.

In 1883, the War Department began to tally the monthly rolls of all Union soldiers to verify veterans’ participation in the war.  James was listed as present March and April of 1864, “absent sick” at Little Rock during May and June of 1864, present in July and August of 1864, then October, November, and December “absent on escort,” and present from January to June, 1865.

He was mustered out in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 27, 1865.