Benjamin Franklin Hodnett was born around 1830 in Troup County, Georgia, to William Hodnett and Caroline Finley. His father was a farmer who owned $6,000 of real estate and $8,000 of personal property. He married Sarah Jane Taylor, and they had at least six children: William, born around 1859; Lula, born around 1862; Julia, born around 1865; Carolina, born around 1867; Robert, born around 1870; and Thomas, born around 1874. Hodnett enlisted in the Confederate army on April 30, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company G of the 53rd Georgia Infantry on May 12, 1862. He was wounded in the hand and thigh on July 2, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, and he mustered out on November 15, 1864.
Hodnett returned to Troup County, Georgia, after the war. By 1870, he was working as a physician, and he owned $2,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property. The family moved to Coweta County, Georgia, sometime in the 1870s. He remained there for the rest of his life, dying on November 28, 1912.