b. New York, 1832
d. Washington D.C., January 1, 1874

Benjamin Sweet was born in New York in 1832 and moved to Chilton, Wisconsin, as a young man to set up a law practice. He was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in the fall of 1860, but soon interrupted his political career to fight in the Civil War.

Civil War Service

Sweet began his military career in May 1861 as a major in the 6th Wisconsin Infantry. In August, after the regiment reached Washington, D.C., he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. The following summer Sweet was called home to form a new regiment.

He was appointed colonel of the 21st Wisconsin Infantry on July 21, 1862. Two months later, on October 8, 1862, Sweet led it into combat for the first time at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky. His men had been out of camp just a month, receiving only four days of drilling. They were mistakenly sent too far in front of the main Union line and were caught in a cross fire. Col. Sweet was shot in the right arm, which remained paralyzed the rest of his life. Of his regiment of new recruits, 65 men were killed and 80 wounded on that day. Sweet’s injury prevented him from further combat duty and he returned briefly to Chilton, Wisconsin, to recuperate.

In 1863 he oversaw construction of a fort in Tennessee. In May 1864 he was given command of Camp Douglas in Chicago, a prisoner of war camp. It contained several thousand inmates, including some of the Confederacy's top military leaders. That fall he discovered a plot by Southern spies to liberate prisoners and burn Chicago on the eve of the 1864 presidential election. Sweet thwarted the conspiracy, earning the thanks of the War Department and was brevetted a brigadier service.

Postwar Years

Sweet remained in Chicago until 1871, serving as U.S. Pension Agent. He was then appointed supervisor of Internal Revenue for Illinois. He eventually moved to Washington, D.C., to perform similar work for the U.S. Internal Revenue Department. He died there January 1, 1874, after a brief illness.

Links to Learn More

• Character Sketch

  of Col. Sweet by his fellow-officer, Michael Fitch

• Description of the Camp Douglas Escape Attempt, Fall 1864

• View Original Documents Related to Col. Sweet

[Source: Fitch, Michael H. Echoes of the Civil War... (New York, 1905); Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 2 (1918-1919); Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 7 (1876); Quiner, E.B. The Military History of Wisconsin (Chicago, 1866). ]