The Judah P. Benjamin Award is presented to honor the Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America. It consists of a certificate awarded to individuals for outstanding endeavors and achievements not necessarily related to the Confederacy in the following fields: civic / community service, conservation, education, the environment, humanitarian efforts and patriotic service.

In 2001, the award was approved at the 108th Annual General Convention held in Columbia, SC. The first award was presented in 2002 at the 109th Annual Convention held in Richmond, VA by President General Mrs. Frank I. Silek to Dr. O. James Lightehizer, President of the Civil War Preservation Trust.

The certificates are presented in sequential order from UDC General and the National Number represents the ordered in, which they received their award.

Click on the name in the table below to read a detailed narrative about the individual and why they received this award.

Photograph from the Collection of the Library of Congress

Judah P. Benjamin was a Senator from Louisiana; born on the Island of St. Croix, Danish West Indies (now Virgin Islands) on 6 Aug 1811.

He immigrated to Savannah, GA, in 1816 with his parents, who later settled in Wilmington, NC; attended the Fayetteville Academy, Fayetteville, NC, and Yale College; moved to New Orleans, LA, in 1831 and taught school; studied law.

He was admitted to the bar in 1832 and commenced practice in New Orleans; elected to the lower house of the state legislature in 1842 and served until 1844; member of the State constitutional convention in 1845; elected as a Whig to the U.S. Senate in 1853; reelected as a Democrat in 1859 and served from 4 Mar 1853, to 4 Feb 1861, when he withdrew; chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (34th through 36th Congresses).

He was appointed Attorney General under the provisional government of the Confederate States, Feb 1861; appointed Acting Secretary of War of the Confederate States in Aug 1861 and served until Nov 1861, when he was appointed Secretary of War; served in this capacity until Feb 1862, when he resigned to accept the appointment as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Jefferson Davis, in which capacity he served until the end of the war.

In 1865, after the end of the War Between the States, he moved to Great Britain; studied English law at Lincoln’s Inn, London, was admitted to the bar in that city in 1866, and practiced law there; engaged in newspaper and magazine work; received the appointment of Queen’s counsel in 1872; retired in 1883 from active practice and public life.

In 1883, he moved to Paris, France and died there on 6 May 1884; interment in Pere la Chaise Cemetery. He was buried under the name of "Philippe Benjamin" in the family plot of the Boursignac family, the in-laws of his daughter. Three grandchildren died in childhood and no direct descendants survived.

In 1938, the Paris Chapter, Daughters of the Confederacy provided an inscription to identify the man in the almost anonymous grave:

Bibliography: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Evans, Eli N. Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate. New York: The Free Press, 1988; Osterweis, R.G. Judah P. Benjamin, Statesman of the Lost Cause. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933.