Jefferson County, West Virginia - Biography: John Yates BEALL ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** BEALL, John Yates, Confederate guerrilla and sailor: b. Walnut Grove, Jefferson county, Va., Jan. 1, 1835; hangeded on Governor's Island, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1864. He was descended from an honorable Virginia family and was educated for the law. The death of his father, however, compelled him to abandon his profession in 1855. He farmed in Jefferson county until the outbreak of the war, when he volunteered with his command, the "Botts Grays" and was mustered into Company G, Second Virginia infantry. After being incapacitated by a wound, he went West and then moved into Canada. While in the latter country, he contrived a plan to liberate the Confederate prisoners at Johnson's Island. With this plan in mind, he returned South and solicited the approval of the Confederate authorities. He was commissioned as acting master in the Confederate navy, but was not assigned to command. On his own initiative he began a series of exciting privateering enterprises along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, but he was captured in November, 1863, and confined in irons at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. This led to reprisals by the Confederate government and ultimately on May 5, 1864, Beall was exchanged. Unable to secure the approval of the government, he went to Canada without orders to carry out his favorite plan of liberating the prisoners on Johnson's Island. On Sept. 18, 1864, with a small band of picked men, he captured the Philo Parsons and the Island Queen and would probably have reached Johnson's Island, but for a mutiny in his crew and the miscarriage of other plans. He was forced to abandon his project and was captured in citizen's clothing at Niagra, N. Y., on Dec. 16, 1864. He was hurried to New York, was tried as a guerrilla and was executed. The Confederacy assumed responsibility for his actions, but could not prevent the execution of the sentence. His fortitude and courageous bearing during his trial and death were commended even by his enemies. Source: The South in the Building of the Nation. Richmond, Va.: The Southern Historical Publication Society, 1909. Volume XI, pages 61-62 Transcribed and submitted by Valerie F. Crook, , 1999. *********************************************************************************