If you are looking for some dapper upper class officer, well that's not Benjamin. Not that he couldn't look good enough if clad in an army dress uniform with freshly shaven face but there is no need for that out on the western frontier in a backwater outpost in Montana. Benjamin is in his late thirties but most would guess him for older. Military life is not an easy one and his career of campaigning both in the Civil War and now with the US Cavalry has aged him more than even he would care to admit. To judge him by first glimpse though would be a big mistake.

On campaign, Benjamin is at ease in the saddle, having done this very thing for so many years now. His horse was one he purchased, as many officers were wont to do. It is a six year old big solid bay gelding named Joe. Sadly he has lost mounts in action more than once, being in the cavalry is hazardous for horses too. He is simply armed, carrying an 1860 Colt Single Action revolver in a military holster. Though officially sabers are supposed to be part of a cavalryman's arsenal, like almost every regiment west of the Mississippi, these are stored away for occasional use in parades or ceremonies only. A more useful piece of equipment often hangs around his neck, a binoculars.

Benjamin carries himself with a quiet confidence, in action he can remain focused and outwardly calm, in an argument he can state his case with an almost reserved demeanor. But underneath all that, there is an almost palpable simmering anger at times. He has long ago formed his opinions, shaped his personal philosophy, and at this point has no desire to amend them, or even less, put up with ideas or people who are contrary to his beliefs, his ethics, his standards.

He admits it sometimes aloud even, that the tools of his trade are violence and force. He will do what he feels is necessary. He might not always approve of how the army operates or his superiors, but he has a fierce loyalty to his troopers and is consistently concerned about their welfare. That does not mitigate his belief though in the importance of discipline. "The army is neither a democracy nor a mob," is one of his personal quotes. If it concerns duty, it is best not to cross him.

Part of the job of an independent military command such as he now exercises is dealing with civilians. He has mixed feelings about civilians. Too often he finds them, especially the men, foolish and stubborn. They bring on many of the problems on the frontier with their behavior or lack of. However it is his job to protect them and in particular their families. There he feels much more sympathetic to the women and children.

Captain on duty, Benjamin off duty

A soldier since he enlisted in the Civil War, he is a career officer, the army is his life. 

He currently is serving in the 2nd Cavalry in Montana territory.

• Experienced officer, combat veteran both in the Civil War and in fighting against the Plains Indians.
• Excellent horseman.
• An ability to remain cool and collected even in times of great stress.

Family

Parents deceased, married sister back East, they write - rarely.

A bachelor, he would tell you he is already married - to the service.

No children.

Benjamin was born into a middle class family, he was the second of three children but the first, also a boy, died while still an infant of a sudden illness. Benjamin was seven by the time his little sister arrived. His parents were upstanding members of the town of Athens, Ohio. His father, Owen, was a college professor of history at Ohio University. He was brought up in a loving but strict household, that discipline stayed with Benjamin for the rest of his life. However his father's love of history, books, and the scholastic world did not carry over to the son. An indifferent student, the boy was much more drawn to a life of constant activity and search for adventure. He never did get into serious trouble but he was definitely into much boyhood and adolescent mischief.

Benjamin left home at the age of 17, eager to become his own man and with the blessing of his father though to the sorrow of his mother. The next decade was a time of much wandering and indifferent at best personal success. He tried a lot of jobs from dock hand on a river port to deckhand on a riverboat. Travel on the river was exciting and different though the work hard and the captain quite the tyrant. Whether he would have stuck it out for a long term career though proved to be out of his hands as disaster struck. The riverboat caught fire and on that fateful night he learned to swim the hard way when the riverboat sank, taking many lives with it. After that harrowing experience he decided to stay away from water and drifted into the uplands of Tennessee. There he took varied jobs on horse farms starting out simply mucking barns but gradually learning a lot about the animals. He found out he liked the big animals, a part of him preferred dealing with horses to humans alright. This equine experience would hold him in good stead when the war broke out in 1861.

Like his father before him, Benjamin was staunchly against the institution of slavery, in fact his father used to say he almost named the boy Spartacus who had led the greatest slave rebellion in Rome's long history. He also felt a loyalty to his home state and headed north as things spiraled out of control into war. Caught up in the frenzied early patriotism, Benjamin enlisted in the Union army - the cavalry to be specific. He has never looked back since, the army suits him.

Benjamin joined the 3rd Cavalry in May, 1861 but by August of the same year it's designation was changed to what it would remain from there on, the 6th Cavalry. By 1862 this young regiment was earning it's spurs with continual campaigning while assigned to the Army of the Potomac. Benjamin advanced quickly from private to sergeant for showing both "aptitude and fortitude" or so said the report of his company commander. He and the unit participated in constant skirmishes. Benjamin learned that he could overcome his fear and function on the chaos of a battlefield while many about him could not.

In 1863 the 6th Cavalry would get their first real full scale battle, Brandy Station, where they would lose several officers and one sixth of their strength to casualties. Benjamin killed his first man there, pistoling a rebel horseman who was in the act of aiming a sawed off shotgun at him. It might have bothered him more if he had not lost men he knew from his own unit. It was kill or be killed. You get him before he gets you, another lesson he would never forget.

It was during the Gettysburg campaign, that 6th Cavalry became celebrated for it's gallant rearguard action fighting to hold off two of the South's finest cavalry brigades at Fairfield. To this day, Benjamin believes this to be the fiercest fight he had ever been in. Every officer in the regiment but three became casualties and losses were heavy among the troopers too. Benjamin was lightly wounded but ignored the wound while rallying stragglers during the final withdrawal. This time he reckoned he killed perhaps four or five of the rebels but though he killed them he admired them for their boldness and courage. Unlike some, Aurelian never could build up a hate for the Confederates, they too were soldiers just doing their duty. However they were fighting for an unjust cause, of that he remained certain.

Given the heavy officer losses and his own performance, Benjamin was promoted to lieutenant and soon after then to captain. The Sixth continued to perform well the remainder of the war, being in on the final crushing defeats of the army of Robert E. Lee just outside of Appomattox. Aurelian was thankful when the war ended soon after. But unlike so many he did not muster out but decided to stay in the army.

Post war saw the 6th, greatly reduced in numbers due to budget cuts, sent on out west of the Mississippi where it helped enforce the Reconstruction in Texas. Because they did not need as many officers those were pruned too and Benjamin considered himself lucky to be retained though he was reduced in rank to lieutenant. He understood it was all about seniority, it was how the army operated. So be it.

Of course one of the other reasons the army and thus the cavalry were out west were the Indians. Indian problems were endemic and the army found itself overstretched in the vastness of the ground they were expected to cover. Regiments were broken up into smaller detachments and these were deployed all over to try and help the growing population and enforce Indian Agency decrees. Naturally Benjamin went where he was sent.

Just prior to being sent to Montana, he had the satisfaction of being promoted back up to captain  and currently is in command of an understrength company of troopers. While he is a veteran and a few of his NCOs are also long serving, most of his men are recruits. He took the revelation calmly enough, you learn to work with what you got.