[1] He was the twelfth and youngest child of Catherine Harris and Nevil Bennett, a farmer and primitive Baptist minister.

[1][4] He enrolled in the sophomore class of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when he was sixteen years old, but soon left over hazing and headed West where he saw the Rocky Mountains and lived with Native Americans.

[4] In the winter of 1858-9, he enrolled in the law school at Cumberland University, where he was a member of the Fraternity of Delta Psi (St. Anthony Hall).

[2] Bennett became an attorney at law in the Court of Common Pleas in Anson County, North Carolina in January 1860.

[2] After the Civil War, he joined a law practice with Judge Thomas Samuel Ashe.

[2] After leaving Congress, Bennett practiced law in Wadesboro, North Carolina.

[4] Bennett married Kate Shepperd on August 26, 1863, while he was at home recovering from his wounds during the Civil War.

[4] While at the Constitutional Convention in 1875, Bennett suffered from sciatica and had to be carried to the Capital on a cot daily, as he was unable to sit up.