The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Private Joseph M. Beavers, 56th Illinois: Victim on the SS General Lyon-- Part 1

From the March 8, 2015, Southern (Southern Illinois) "Civil War Timeline: Pvt. Joseph M. Beavers and the 56th Illinois Infantry" by P.Michael Jones, Director of the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro, Illinois.

On June 20, 1860, the census taker visited Joseph M. Beavers at his farm.  Mr. Beavers was 21, a farmer, and was living there with his wife Elizabeth, 20, their son James, 2, and a housekeeper.

He had married Elizabeth three years earlier and had a daughter named Dora (who evidently was not listed on the 1860 census, so might have died).  He did not own his farm, but had acquired a sizable (for then) $250 worth of personal property.  I would also think some wealth was indicated by the presence of a housekeeper unless she was a relative.

He did not join the Union Army after Fort Sumter.  Like many others in the southern Illinois area known as Little Egypt, he had been born in the South (Kentucky).  However, he did enlist for a term of three years on November 12, 1861.  (However, he and others did not muster out until nearly four months after that date in 1865 because of campaigning.)

He became Private Joseph M. beavers of Co. C, 56th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

--Old Secesh

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