author
B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Scribner
1825–1900
A soldier-writer from Indiana, he turned firsthand wartime experience into vivid books about camp life and the Mexican War. His story also reaches into the Civil War, where he became a Union officer remembered for long public service.
1 Audiobook
A campaign in Mexico
by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Scribner
About the author
Born in New Albany, Indiana, in 1825, Benjamin Franklin Scribner was the son of Abner Scribner, one of the men associated with laying out the town. He showed an early interest in military life, joined a local militia company, and served in the Mexican-American War with the 2nd Indiana Volunteers, including action at Buena Vista.
Scribner later wrote about those experiences in Camp Life of a Volunteer (1847) and A Campaign in Mexico (1850), giving readers a direct, personal view of a young soldier's life. Reference sources on Indiana authors and archival collections also describe him as a druggist and chemist, reflecting a career that moved between business and military service.
During the Civil War he organized and led the 38th Indiana Infantry and later received recognition as a brigadier general by brevet. He died in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1900, leaving behind both military papers and books that preserve his eyewitness account of nineteenth-century American war.