Benjamin F. Eakle
In April, 1861, he enlisted in the Greenbrier cavalry, and being elected lieutenant served in that rank until the company was disbanded in the fall of 1861. He then went to Richmond and obtained authority to organize a new company of cavalry. This organization he completed in March, 186., and he was elected captain, and assigned to duty with his command in Greenbrier and that vicinity.
During the summer and fall of 1861 he served with his company under the command of General Loring and later under General Echols, in the movement down the Kanawha valley, and in the following winter was detailed on scouting duty in Greenbrier, Morrow and Mercer counties. His company was assigned, in the following spring, as Company K, to the Fourteenth Virginia cavalry, Cot James Cochrane commanding, in the brigade of Gen. A. G. Jenkins, and Captain Eakle was elected major of the regiment. In this rank he rendered the remainder of his service.
Among the engagements in which he participated perhaps the most important were the fighting at Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford, in the command of the lamented Garnett, the engagement at Chambersburg, Pa., in 1863; the cavalry fight on the third day of Gettysburg, when he had a horse killed under him, Shepherdstown and Culpepper Court House: the fighting with Hunter from Staunton to Lynchburg and at the latter place; Monocacy, Opequan, Winchester (September 19, 1864), and Cedar Creek.
At the battle of Monocacy he was shot through the body, but was again in the saddle six weeks later. At the battle of Cedar Creek, October, 1864, he was captured by the enemy, and he subsequently experienced many weary months at Fort Delaware, not being released until July, 1865. Major Eakles acted as manager of the Exchange and Ballard hotels at Richmond from 1865 to 1872, and subsequently was connected with the White Sulphur Springs hotel as chief clerk, and later as general manager. Since 1894 he has been engaged in agriculture and stock-raising in Greenbrier county. Despite his more than four years of service in the field and prison camp, he is yet a man of fine physique, and though retired from business, actively enjoys the comforts of life and the rewards of an honorable and successful career.
In 1886, Major Benjamin Eakles, Greenbrier Cavalry, was asked by Bachelder to provide information about Jenkins Brigade at Rummels Barn, Gettysburg. Eakles writes back, "I have been struggling for 20 years for an existence and have tried to think as little about our struggles and the incidents connected with it as possible, and being in public business scarely even allow myself to talk about it.... I was so badly wounded there myself, that I never knew much what happened....."