Benjamin Gray
(Bertie County)
Featured Character – 1864 Confederate Decline
Benjamin Gray
Courtesy of Port O' Plymouth Museum, Plymouth, NC
Benjamin Gray was a 12-year-old boy who enlisted in the Confederate Navy in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was appointed powder boy on the famous ironclad CSS Albemarle. He was responsible for carrying bags of gunpowder from the magazine to the gun deck. While living in Bertie County in June 1917, he applied for a Confederate pension, which was approved by North Carolina the following month. When Gray died in 1924, his widow was granted a pension for his service.