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Capt. Alfred Benton Avery, for ten years in the government service on the Isthmus of Panama, died there in October, 1915, and the age of seventy-nine years. He was born in Newport, Ala.,and spent his boyhood in that vicinity. In 1858 he was married to Miss Harriet Beale, of Columbus County, Ga., and then located at Tuskegee, Ala. When the War between the States came on, he was one of the first to answer the call to arms and was made captain in the 45th Alabama Regiment. He was wounded twice, but each time returned to his command and fought bravely until the last year of the war, when he was taken prisoner at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., sent to Johnson's Island Prison, and held until the close of the war. He then engaged in business at Meridian, Miss., until 1902, when joined his son, James Avery, in Oakdale, Pa., and in 1905 he and his son went to the Isthmus of Panama in the service of the government.

Captain Avery was an honorary member of the local Post of Veterans of Foreign Wars at Cristobal and was the only Confederate veteran living on the Isthmus. His death occurred at the Ancon Hospital, and a delegation from the Post accompanied his remains to Cristobal, where the funeral services were held and his body laid to rest in Mount Hope Cemetery. The flag-draped coffin was borne to the cemetery on a gun carriage, and over his grave a volley was fired and the bugle sounded the "last call." Of the four pallbearers, one had seen service in China, one in Cuba, one in the Phillipines, and one was the son of a veteran of the War between the States. In the escort were several young soldiers of the Sons of Veterans, with Major Grove, Chief Quartermaster of the Panama Canal.

Captain Avery is survived by his wife, son, two daughters (Mrs. John Barnes, of Montana, and Mrs. E. A. Ramsey, of Monroe, N. C.), and one grandchild (Mrs. H. Irl Johnson, of Sheffield, Ala., President of the Mildred Lee Chapter, U. D. C.).