Benton Delong [sic]

I researched Grace Delony [aka Deloni], the widow of Benton Delony, a private in the 11^th Regiment Infantry USCT.

Grace Guy and Benton Delony were both from Franklin County, Alabama, where both were enslaved and lived about 5 miles apart from one another; they met sometime prior to 1861, the start of the Civil War.

Grace and Benton both became free, Grace upon her marriage to Benton, as records state that “he took her from her owner in Alabama,” and Benton Delony upon joining the military.

Upon his enrollment in the military, Grace and Benton travelled together from Alabama to Corinth, Mississippi, where they were married by a white officer of his regiment, Captain Alexander, sometime in 1863 (although the exact date is not known).

Grace and Benton had no children together.

Grace and Benton lived together as husband and wife in Corinth until Benton left for Fort Pillow on active duty.

Less than a year later, Benton was killed in action at Fort Pillow in Tennessee on April 12, 1864.

Grace lived in South Memphis, Tennessee at the time she applied for her widow’s pension. Although she had a relationship with another man, she never remarried, so she remained the widow of Benton Delony and was therefore eligible for a widow’s pension. She claimed that she was always entirely economically dependent on her husband.

When Grace applied for her widow’s pension, she encountered many obstacles:

(1) Confusion regarding the correct spelling of Benton’s last name, which was first recorded as Deloni and then as Delony.

(2) No formal records of their marriage. She had no legal proof of the marriage, as it was not recorded in public documents. In her affidavits, she stated that the marriage certificate was in the possession of her husband Benton (that he always carried it with him) and that it was destroyed or lost upon his death, and that she is unable to locate Captain Alexander, the white officer who married them. She also gave different dates for the marriage.

• “She further states that she was married to said Benton Delony at Corinth Miss by one Chaplain Alexander on or about the 15 day of August 1863 that she believes no record of said marriage was made or kept excepting a Marriage Certificate which said certificate was always carried by her husband Benton Delony, that when he was killed it was destroyed or lost and she cannot now obtain the same, that she has been unable to obtain evidence of her marriage from Alexander aforesaid, he having gone to parts unknown, that since said marriage and up to the death of her husband Benton Delony aforesaid, they had lived and cohabited together as man and wife and were so reputed and recognized by all who knew them”

(3) Moral judgments and investigations regarding her “adultery,” a relationship outside of marriage (after Benton’s death) with a man named James Lee, who fathered her child.

• In the affidavit of Africa Bailey, he stated: “that claimant did live in adultery with one James Lee of this city for about a year, and the he so lived with her in the year 1869, or 1870; that the claimant was a member of his church, and in a church trial she made an open confession of her adultery, and promised to do so no more, and he is satisfied that thus far she has kept her promise; that the said Lee confessed to the above, and recognizes the child which she has as his; that so far as he knows, and he thinks he would know if it was so; the said Grace has not lived in adultery with any man other than the said James Lee.”

Ultimately, in his 1874 Investigation Report, the special agent denied Grace's application for a widow's pension, concluding that "the evidence as filed in this case is worthless as to marriage":

I think it quite evident that the soldier treated the claimant as his wife and that she was in some respects so recognized by others, but there seems to be but little if any evidence of marriage. There can be no doubt of the fact that many of the women who were around the camps and passing as the wives of soldiers were never married to them, and I think where the marriage is claimed after the enlistment of the soldier no proof short of a certificate of marriage is or ought to be taken as sufficient. I think there is no doubt but that the claimant is living to herself and that she recognizes or treats no man as her husband. From the evidence of claimant, it is quite certain that the evidence as filed in this case is worthless as to marriage, and I think the statement of claimant, that her said husband carried the marriage certificate, and that it was lost with him, is scarcely worth credit.