He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee & again during the Atlanta campaign

(1820-86) Born in Nashville, Tennessee on a plantation called Westover which consisted of three thousand acres. His mother was descended from General James Robertson, the founder of Nashville. He fought in the Mexican War as captain of the 1st Tennessee Infantry, and as colonel of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry. Motivated by the excitement caused by the 1849 California Gold Rush, Cheatham moved to California where he lived for the next 4 years. In the years leading up to the War Between the States, he managed his family's plantation, and served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee militia. Soon after the war commenced, Cheatham joined the Confederate army and was commissioned as a brigadier general on May 9, 1861. He was appointed a brigade commander in the Western District of Department Number Two, and served under General Leonidas Polk. His first battle action was on November 7, 1861, at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri, where he led three regiments in General Gideon J. Pillow's division, against Union troops commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant. Cheatham and his men received the "Thanks of the Confederate Congress," "for the desperate courage they exhibited in sustaining for several hours, and under most disadvantageous circumstances an attack by a force of the enemy greatly superior to their own, both in numbers and appointments; and for the skill and gallantry by which they converted what at first threatened so much disaster, into a triumphant victory." He was promoted to major general, on March 10, 1862, and was appointed commander of the 2nd Division, First Corps, Army of Mississippi, which he led at the Battle of Shiloh where he was wounded. General Braxton Bragg became commander of the army, which was then designated the Army of Tennessee, with Cheatham fighting under him at the Battles of Perryville, Ky., and Stones River, Tenn., as a division commander. Private Sam Watkins, author of "Company Aytch," claims to have personally witnessed General Cheatham leading a charge on the Wilkerson Turnpike during the battle, indicating that he performed gallantly. Watkins fought with Co. H, 1st Tennessee Infantry, and became one of the most well-known common soldiers in Civil War history. Cheatham continued as a division commander under Bragg at the Battle of Chickamauga, and following that Confederate victory, he fought in the battles around Chattanooga, including Missionary Ridge, where Bragg was defeated by General U.S. Grant. Cheatham helped block the Union Army in the final hours of the battle. In 1864, he fought well in the Atlanta Campaign under General Joseph E. Johnston, and later under General John Bell Hood, inflicting heavy casualties on General William T. Sherman's army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and he was wounded at the Battle of Ezra Church. He took over command of General Hood's corps when Hood was elevated to command of the army on July 18th. After his gallant service in the Atlanta campaign, he was engaged in all of the battles of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, with Hood. After the collapse of General Hood's army at Nashville, Cheatham joined General Joseph E. Johnston's army in the 1865 Carolina's Campaign, and surrendered to General Sherman in North Carolina in April 1865. After the war, Cheatham declined an offer of Federal civil service employment that was offered to him by his former enemy, President Ulysses S. Grant. He served for four years as the superintendent of a Tennessee state prison, and was the postmaster of Nashville, 1885–1886. He died in Nashville, on September 4, 1886, at the age of 65, and was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville. His son Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, Jr., (1867–1944), was a major general in the United States Army, serving with distinction in the Spanish–American War and in World War I.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Half view wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of brigadier general, gauntlets, and cradling his sword across his arm. Back mark: E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. Light age toning. Very fine, and desirable image.