Andrew Ellicott Kennedy Benham was born on April 10, 1832, in Staten Island, New York, near New Dorp.

[1][4][citation needed] After another tour of duty in Plymouth followed by one in the frigate Saranac, Benham attended the U.S.

[5][citation needed] Later that year, he was transferred to the steamer Western Port (renamed Wyandotte) assigned to the expedition sent to Paraguay to extract an apology for shooting at the gunboat Water Witch.

[1] In October 1861, Benham joined the steamer Bienville[1] in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and, in her, participated in the Battle of Port Royal, on November 7, 1861.

He afterward served as prize commissioner for the Georgia district from July 1898 to February 6, 1899, and was a member of the Board of Awards.

[citation needed] They had three children: a daughter who died in infancy c. 1866; Henry Kennedy Benham born in 1867 and who died of appendicitis in 1904; and Edith Wallace Benham (1874–1962), who married James Meredith Helm and served for 25 years as the Social Secretary for the White House under Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.

[4][7][citation needed] After retiring, Benham lived at 1315 20th Street NW in Washington, D.C.[4] In April 1897, his house on Fresh Kill Road in Staten Island burned down.