A Civil War Biography Benjamin L.E. Bonneville Bonneville was
born 14 April 1796 in Paris, France. He emigrated to the United
States in 1803. He graduated from West Point in 1815 and was
assigned, as an engineer, constructing military roads in the
Southwest. In 1821 he was assigned to Fort Smith in the Arkansas
Territory. In 1825 he became a captain in the 7th US Infantry.
In 1832 Bonneville took a leave of absence from the army and led
a 110 man expedition, partially funded by John Jacob Aster
supposedly to trap and trade, into the Wyoming Territory. The
expedition was a failure as far as fur trapping was concerned
but the knowledge obtained of as yet unexplored territories
proved valuable. The expedition to the Rocky Mountains proceeded
up the Platte River through parts of what are now Colorado and
Wyoming into the Great Salt Lake basin and on to California.
There were two trips to the Columbia River in the Oregon
Territory. Although he had been stricken from the army's active
rolls, when Bonneville returne