Twenty-seven year-old John S. Benton of Wilson County enlisted in the Confederate Army on 28 June 1861 in Craven County, North Carolina. He was assigned to Company F, 4th North Carolina Infantry; was wounded at Seven Pines, Virginia, on 31 May 1862; and died of his wounds on 10 June 1862.

As administrator of Benton’s small estate, Willie Lamm filed this account of the sale of Benton’s property, which included “one Negroman Sezar.” The low price Caesar brought suggests that he was very old and/or infirm.

Estate File of John S. Benton (1863), Wilson County, North Carolina Estate Files 1663-1979, http://www.familysearch.org