Editing Bennet C. Riley (section)

==Early life and family==
Riley was born to an Irish-Catholic couple, Bennet Riley and Susanna Ann Drury,<ref>Spencer Tucker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=w_Mqj6UuRgQC&dq=Bennet+Riley&pg=PT527 San Patricio Battalion], found in Alexander Bielakowski (ed), ''Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military: An Encyclopedia'', ABC-CLIO, Jan 11, 2013. 9781598844283</ref> in [[St. Mary's, Maryland]], 1787. His father apprenticed him to a cobbler; later, he served as a foreman in a shoe factory. After his father's death in 1811, he signed up for service on a [[privateer]].<ref>Jefferson Davis, ''Papers'', LSU Press, 1975 9780807158654, p. 602.</ref>

Riley married Arabella Israel, of Philadelphia, on 9 November 1834, at the Jefferson Barracks, [[Lemay, Missouri]].<ref>Newspapers and Periodicals. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Ancestry.com. U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014, 29 Nov 1834. Accessed 31 October 201.{{subscription required}}</ref> They had eight children: William Davenport Riley and Samuel Israel Riley, twins, died in [[Fort King]], Florida, on 15 and 17 November 1841; Bennet Israel Riley, born 1835 in Massachusetts, served in the Navy and died aboard the war-sloop {{USS|Albany|1846|6}}, which disappeared with all hands in September 1854;<ref>''Navy Casualty Reports, 1776–1941'', Lost and Wrecked Ships, Explosions and Steam Casualties, [https://www.fold3.com/image/?rec=268738888&terms=Bennet%20Riley p. 5], Fold3 12-003. Accessed 3 November 2015. {{Subscription required}} See also Correspondence of Franklin Pierce with the Senate, ''To the Senate (re sloop-of-war Albany),'' 26 February 1855, Congressional Edition, Volume 745, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mWZHAQAAIAAJ&dq=war+sloop+Albany+1855&pg=PA291 p. 331].</ref> Mary, born 1836; Arabella I. Riley, 1837–1916) (never married); George, born 1838; and Edward Bishop Dudley Riley (1839–1918), whose military career was split between the Union and Confederate armies.{{efn|Edward Riley, born in 1839 in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, graduated from [[West Point]] in 1860. There is some conflict with the sources over his subsequent service. Sources about his father report that he served with the 4th Infantry in California; upon the outbreak of war in 1861, he resigned his commission on 13 June 1861, and left with [[Lewis Armistead]] for Texas, and then to Virginia. He served as a staff officer, under [[Braxton Bragg]] and [[Albert Sidney Johnston]] and several others, as part of the Confederate staff.<ref>Davis, p. 601.</ref> According to Army records, he served as a corporal in the 2nd Infantry, and deserted in June 1861 in Troy, New York.<ref>New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Albany, New York; New York Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861–1900; Archive Collection #: 13775-83; Box #: 84; Roll #: 932-933, [http://search.ancestry.com//cgi-bin/sse.dll?gss=angs-c&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Edward+Bishop&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Riley&gsln_x=0&MSAV=1&msbdy=1840&cpxt=1&cp=12&catbucket=rstp&uidh=5vf&pcat=39&h=650270&db=CWMusterRoll&indiv=1&ml_rpos=3 Edward Riley]. Accessed 3 November 2015.</ref> He is listed in the "Officers of the 4th Infantry Present and Absent in September 1861",<ref>"Officers of the 4th Infantry Present and Absent in September 1861", Army Register of Enlistments, p. 539, accessed 3 November 2015.</ref> and in the US Army Historical Register.<ref>US Army Historical Register - Volume 2 › Part III - Officers Who Left the US Army After 1860 and Joined the Confederate Service › Page 4. Accessed 3 November 2015. {{subscription required}}</ref>}}

[[Ulysses S. Grant]] described Bennet Riley as "the finest specimen of physical manhood I had ever looked upon...6'2 (190&nbsp;cm) in his stocking feet, straight as the undrawn [sic] bowstring, broad shouldered with every limb in perfect proportion, with an eagle and a step as light as a forest tiger."<ref>Susannah Ural Bruce, ''The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861–1865'', NYU Press, 2006, 9780814799390 pp. 36–37.</ref> An accident or injury in his youth caused him to lose part of his palate, and he spoke with a hoarse voice.<ref name=Davis>Davis, p. 602.</ref><ref name=Obit>''New York Times'', [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1853/06/11/75126752.pdf New York Times: ''General Riley''], June 11, 1853.</ref>