WRIGHT, Benjamin, soldier, born in Savannah, Georgia, 2 April, 1784; died in Purdy, Tennessee, 30 January, 1860. His father, John, a cousin of Sir James Wright, noticed below, was a captain in the Georgia line in the Revolutionary war. Benjamin was appointed a lieutenant in the army by President Madison, 29 July, 1813, and assigned to the 39th regiment of infantry, which was commanded by Colonel John Williams. At the battle of the Horse Shoe, 27 March, 1814, as the regiment was moving on the Indian breastworks, Major Lemuel Montgomery was killed. Lieutenant Wright at once rushed in front of his company, and, sword in hand, mounted the works and called to his men to follow. They passed over the works, and the result of the battle, which ended the Creek war, was the death, disabling, or capture of the entire Indian force. Wright was complimented in general orders and promoted captain in September, 1814. He resigned from the army in June, 1815, and settled in the Choctaw country of western Tennessee, where he built on the present site of Purdy the first log-cabin. He was popular with the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, and was instrumental in making the treaty by which they ceded their lands in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee. He volunteered at the age of sixty-five in the Mexican war, where he contracted disease that led to his death.--His son, John Vines, lawyer, born in Purdy, McNairy County, Tennessee, 28 June, 1828, received a classical education, studied law, practised in his native town, and was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving in 1855-'61. He was then chosen colonel of the 13th Tennessee infantry in the Confederate army, and participated in the battle of Belmont. Colonel Wright was elected to the first Confederate congress, and re-elected. He has been judge of the circuit court, special chancellor and judge of the state supreme court, and in 1880 was the nominee of the Democratic party for governor of Tennessee, advocating the payment of the state debt, but was defeated on account of disaffected Democrats who were opposed to the payment. He was in 1887 chairman of the northwestern Indian commission, which concluded treaties with 13 tribes, and he is now (1889) a member of the Sioux commission.--Another son, Marcus Joseph, soldier, born in Purdy, McNairy County, Tennessee, 5 June, 1831, received a classical education, in 1857 was appointed assistant purser of the navy-yard at Memphis, afterward studied law, and practised in that city. He entered the Confederate army as lieutenant-colonel of the 154th Tennessee militia regiment, 4 April, 1861, and, with four companies of his regiment and a battery of artillery, occupied and fortified Randolph, Tipton County, on Mississippi river. He was military governor of Columbus, Kentucky, from February till March, 1862, and lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general on General Benjamin F. Cheatham's staff during the Kentucky campaign from June till September, 1862. He was appointed brigadier-general, 13 December, 1862, and in 1863-'4 was in charge of the district of Atlanta, Georgia, until its evacuation. He subsequently commanded the districts of Macon, northern Mississippi, and western Tennessee. He led his regiment in the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, and as brigadier-general he was at Chickamauga. In 1867 he was elected sheriff of Shelby county, Tennessee, and on 1 July, 1878, he was appointed agent of the war department to collect Confederate records for publication in the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," which place he now holds. He has published "Reminiscences of the Early Settlement and Early Settlers of McNairy County, Tennessee" (Washington, 1882), and a "Life of Governor William Blount" (1884).