He raised a company of volunteers and was commissioned captain, and attained the rank of colonel and was brevetted brigadier general.

[2] Bennett, a Civil War veteran and local politician in his native Indiana, was the fifth choice of President Ulysses S. Grant to succeed David W. Ballard as Idaho Territory governor.

A third choice declined the offer entirely, while the fourth, Thomas M. Bowen, disliked the Idaho landscape so intensely that he resigned from the governorship and returned east after only one week in office.

[3] In 1874 Bennett was declared the winner of the election for Congressional delegate from Idaho Territory.

Bennett served until June 1876 when a recount determined his opponent in the 1874 election, Stephen S. Fenn, was the actual winner.