Benjamin Franklin Curtright

Known by Frank, in 1860 he was a 25 year old clerk and lived with his siblings on his parents Samuel and Barbara McCoy Howell Curtright's large, successful plantation at La Grange, Troup County, GA. He enlisted as a Private in Company K, 13th Georgia Infantry on 8 July 1861 at Griffin, GA and was elected Junior 2nd Lieutenant on 14 August 1861. He was wounded at Kernstown, VA on 23 March 1862.

He was wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was elected (Senior) 2nd Lieutenant on 13 December 1862 and promoted to First Lieutenant on 10 June 1863. He was wounded again in the Wilderness, VA on 6 May 1864. He was captured at Winchester, VA on 19 September 1864 and held at Ft Delaware until released on 17 June 1865.

After his father's death in December 1863, Frank inherited farms and businesses, including the Sims House (later Park Hotel) in downtown La Grange; he operated these as B.F. Curtright and Company. By 1880, though, he was City Marshal of Opelika, AL, and in 1890 he was a police Sergeant in Atlanta, GA. In 1900 was a machinist there.

His service from Henderson,1 as B.F. Curtwright, and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from his widow Mary Emma's 1905 pension application, online from the Georgia Archives, family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, 1880, and 1900, the Atlanta City Directory for 1890 and 1900, and a piece about the Square in La Grange in the Chamber of Commerce's Troup Trends (May 2022). His gravesite is on Findagrave; his 1956 government-issued marker has him as B.F. Curtwright.

He married Mary Emma McMillan (1837-1916) in December 1854 and they had 7 children.

His brother William Henry Curtright (1844-1893) was First Sergeant of Company K. Brother Thomas Jefferson Curtright (b 1841) was killed at Sharpsburg while a Private in the 4th Georgia Infantry, and another brother, John Cornelius Curtright (b 1830) was killed at Perryville, KY in October 1862 while a Captain in the 41st Georgia Infantry.

While a prisoner at Fort Delaware, he ran a business making "rings, chains, and breastpins" of gutta-percha according to an advertisement in the sole issue of the Prison Times of April 1865.

c. 1835 in GA

09/26/1905; Atlanta, GA; burial in Westview Cemetery, Atlanta, GA