Benjamin C. Christ

Infobox Military Person
name=Benjamin C. Christ
born= Birth date|1824|9|12
died= death date and age|1869|3|27|1824|9|12
placeofbirth= Minersville, Pennsylvania
placeofdeath=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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caption=
allegiance=United States of America
serviceyears=1861 to 1864
rank= Brevet Brigadier General
commands=50th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
battles=American Civil War *Chantilly *Antietam *Fredericksburg *Vicksburg *Knoxville *Wilderness *Spotsylvania *Petersburg

Benjamin C. Christ (September 12, 1824 – March 27, 1869) was an officer in the Union army during the American Civil War. He commanded a brigade in the IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac at several important battles, including the Battle of Antietam.

Christ grew up in Minersville, Pennsylvania, where as an adult he was a coal merchant and a hotel proprietor.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Christ received an appointment on April 21, 1861, as the lieutenant colonel of the 5th Pennsylvania Infantry. He mustered out July 25 at the end of the regiment's 3-months service. In September, he was appointed as colonel of the 50th Pennsylvania Infantry, and was soon in command of a brigade of the IX Corps. At Chantilly, he assumed temporary command of his division upon the death of its original commander, Isaac Stevens. He fought in nearly every battle associated with that corps until he was mustered out in September 1864.

At the close of the war, he received a brevet promotion to brigadier general for his services at the battles of Spotsylvania and Petersburg.

He died shortly after the war's end in 1869 in Philadelphia.

Veterans from his 50th Pennsylvania erected a monument on the Antietam Battlefield in the decades after the war. A bronze statue of Colonel Christ tops the impressive memorial.

References

*Bates, Samuel P., "Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania". Harrisburg: B. Singerly, State Printers.
* Boatner, Mark M. III. "The Civil War Dictionary." New York: David McKay, 1959. ISBN 0-679-50013-8

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