Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Potts, Benjamin Franklin

POTTS, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, b. in Carroll county, Ohio, 29 Jan., 1836; d. in Helena Mont., 17 June, 1887. He was educated at Westminster college, New Wilmington, Pa., and admitted to the bar in 1859. He became captain in the 42d Ohio regiment in 1861, served in the Shenandoah valley, was commissioned colonel in 1862, participated in the Vicksburg campaign, and was then promoted to the command of a brigade and served under Gen. William T. Sherman. On 5 Jan., 1865, he became brigadier-general of volunteers. He then returned to the practice of the law, was elected state senator of Ohio, and was governor of Montana in 1870-'83. Gen. Potts was in the legislature in 1884, and was a member of the Society of the army of the Tennessee.