Benjamin C. Truman

Who was Benjamin C. Truman?

Benjamin Cummings Truman, was an American journalist and author; in particular, he was a distinguished war correspondent during the American Civil War, and an authority on duels.

He was born in Providence, Rhode Island and attended public school in Providence, followed by a Shaker school in Canterbury, New Hampshire. After a year administering a district school in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, he returned to Providence and learned typesetting. He was a compositor and a proofreader for the New York Times from 1855 to 1859, and later worked for John W. Forney in Philadelphia at the Press, and in Washington, D.C. for the Sunday Morning Chronicle.

When the Civil War began, he became a war correspondent, then declined a commission in 1862 to become a staff aide to Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee, and Generals James S. Negley, John H. King and Kenner Garrard.

From Duelling in America 1992:

After the Civil War, Truman had a variety of jobs, serving for a time as a special agent of the Post Office Department on the West Coast, before going back into newspaper work. He shifted into public relations in the 1880's, promoting the state of California both in this country and abroad. After the turn of the century, he toured the Near East as a correspondent.