Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884)

He was often referred to as "the brains of the Confederacy" and, "as an advocate of the legal claims of slavery he was without a superior, probably without an equal in the Senate. His position in this regard drew from Senator Wade the sarcastic remark that Benjamin was a Hebrew with Egyptian principles." On the formation of the provisional government of the Confederate States he was appointed Attorney General (1861) before being made Secretary of War (1861-62). Dismissed for incompetency and neglect, he was nonetheless immediately appointed Secretary of State (1862-65), a position he retained until the fall of the Confederacy. Fleeing the country to avoid arrest and prosecution for war crimes, he escaped by open boat from Florida to the Bahamas before continuing on to Liverpool. In London, he passed the English Bar exams and took silk as a Queen's Counsel within Lancashire in 1872. He died in Paris while visiting his estranged wife and daughter, and he is buried there at the Père-Lachaise cemetery.