| − | Benjamin was a non-observant secular [[Jew]]. Reports that he had delivered a [[Yom Kippur]] address at a [[synagogue]] in [[San Francisco, [[California, in 1861 canot be confirmed. He did on occasion, in the company of President Davis, attend St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Confederate capital of [[Richmond]]. For many years, Benjamin was estranged from his wife, the former Natalie St. Martin (born c. 1817; date of death unknown), a New Orleans native whom he married in 1833 in a [[Roman Catholic]] ceremony when she was sixteen years of age.<ref name=findagrave/> Natalie had little interest in her husband's political career and after fifteen years of marriage relocated with their only child, later Ninette Benjamin De Bousignas (died 1898), to [[Paris]], [[France]], where she spent the remainder of her life. In Paris, she lived lavishly and allegedly engaged in numerous extra-marital affairs. There was never a divorce, and Benjamin made an annual trip to Paris to visit his wife and daughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178961871/natalie-benjamin|title=Natalie St. Martin Benjamin|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 16, 2020}}</ref> | + | Benjamin was a non-observant secular [[Jew]]. Reports that he had delivered a [[Yom Kippur]] address at a [[synagogue]] in [[San Francisco]], [[California, in 1861 canot be confirmed. He did on occasion, in the company of President Davis, attend St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Confederate capital of [[Richmond]]. For many years, Benjamin was estranged from his wife, the former Natalie St. Martin (born c. 1817; date of death unknown), a New Orleans native whom he married in 1833 in a [[Roman Catholic]] ceremony when she was sixteen years of age.<ref name=findagrave/> Natalie had little interest in her husband's political career and after fifteen years of marriage relocated with their only child, later Ninette Benjamin De Bousignas (died 1898), to [[Paris]], [[France]], where she spent the remainder of her life. In Paris, she lived lavishly and allegedly engaged in numerous extra-marital affairs. There was never a divorce, and Benjamin made an annual trip to Paris to visit his wife and daughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178961871/natalie-benjamin|title=Natalie St. Martin Benjamin|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 16, 2020}}</ref> |