Franklin Lafayette Riley was born on February 10, 1835, in Mississippi to Edward and Mary Riley. His father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $10,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Lawrence County, Mississippi, and by the mid-1850s, he was working as a teacher. He supported the Democratic Party, and he cast his first vote for James Buchanan in the election of 1856.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 29, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company B of the 16^th Mississippi Infantry later that day. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 10 ½ inches tall, with black hair and hazel eyes. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Overland Campaign, and the defense of Petersburg. He was wounded at Antietam in September 1862 and spent several months recovering.

 

He expressed devotion to the Confederate cause. In March 1863, he predicted "the hardest fighting to commence soon, that has been since the war commenced." He observed that some people "call me an advocate for war; I tell them...that nobody but an idiot would look for peace now." Union forces captured him near Petersburg, Virginia, on April 2, 1865, and imprisoned him at Point Lookout, Maryland. He was released on June 30, after swearing an oath of allegiance to the Union.

 

He married Balsorah Indiana Weathersby around 1862, and they had at least nine children: Mary, born around 1864; Edward, born around 1866; Franklin, born on August 24, 1868; Jefferson, born around 1871; Balsorah, born around 1877; John, born around 1878; James, born around 1880; Ellen, born around 1884; and May, born around 1887. He settled in Simpson County, Mississippi, after the war, and he earned a living as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $600 of real estate and $600 of personal property. He moved to Hebron, Mississippi, around 1871 and opened a store. In July 1873, he received an appointment as a local postmaster. By 1880, he was working as a merchant. He died on February 19, 1907.

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