Benjamin Leonard Covington Wailes

Benjamin Leonard Covington Wailes (August 1, 1797 – November 16, 1862) was a surveyor, government land agent, Indian agent, state legislator, college professor, university administrator, historian, geologist, naturalist/collector, and land and slave owner of Mississippi, United States.

He represented Adams County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1825 and 1826.

Wailes organized the Mississippi Historical Society in the 1850s, making important acquisitions for a state history collection; the organization lapsed after his death and then was reestablished as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Born in Georgia to a family of Marylanders, he moved with his parents in 1807 to Washington, the capital of Mississippi Territory. He was educated at Jefferson College and then spent most of the rest of his life as a member of the college's board of directors.