Berry Greenwood Benson (February 9, 1843–January 1, 1923) was born in Hamburg, South Carolina, the son of Abraham Madison Benson (1818–1860) and Nancy Harmon (1814–1857). His father spent several years in California during the California Gold Rush of 1849 before returning to South Carolina.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Benson and his brother Blackwood joined the Hamburg Minutemen and were mustered into the First South Carolina Volunteer Regiment in Charleston. After an initial six-month enlistment, Benson reenlisted for the duration of the war. At age eighteen he was appointed corporal of Company H. Serving under A. P. Hill in the Light Division, he participated in the Seven Days Battles, Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and other major engagements. He was wounded, captured, and later escaped Union imprisonment before returning to service.

Following the war, Benson briefly lived in Texas before settling in Augusta, Georgia, where he worked as an accountant and cotton broker. The Ladies’ Memorial Association of Augusta selected him as the model for the anonymous enlisted soldier atop the Confederate Monument erected on Broad Street in 1878. That same year, he served as an officer in the Confederate Survivors Association.

In 1868, Benson married Jeanie Alabama Oliver Benson. The couple had at least five children: Ida Jeanie Benson (b. 1868), Arthur Benson (b. 1870), Pauline Benson (b. 1872), Olive Benson (b. 1875), and Louis Williams Benson (b. 1879). Jeanie Benson participated in Augusta’s cultural life, and several family members were active in music and literary pursuits.

Benson later gained national attention for his public defense of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent convicted of murder in Georgia. Benson authored editorials criticizing antisemitism and questioning the reliability of key testimony in the case. His published arguments contributed to broader public debate and preceded Governor John M. Slaton’s commutation of Frank’s death sentence to life imprisonment.

Benson remained active in Augusta civic life, veterans’ organizations, and local youth groups, including the Boy Scouts, until his death in 1923. Together with his wife and children—including Charles G. Benson, who remained active in the Augusta area—the Benson family occupied a visible place in the social and cultural history of Augusta and North Augusta in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.