11th Connecticut Private Benjamin Beach is buried at Antietam National Cemetery. (Beach image courtesy of descendant.) |
Beach's widow and son filed for assistance from the government after the 11th Connecticut private's death. (fold3.com) |
Quick research yielded basic information about Beach: A 25-year-old private in Company E, he mustered into the 11th Connecticut on Oct. 7, 1861. A farmer, Benjamin was married to a woman named Mary and had two sons, William and Ben. When U.S. census taker visited the Beach household in Norfolk, Conn., on July 6, 1860, he noted Mary was a year younger than Benjamin and William was only 2; Ben had not yet been born.
On Feb. 6, 1863, nearly five months after her husband was killed, Mary filed for a widow's pension, possibly because she had little means of financial support. One of Beach's sons also filed for government assistance after his father's death, perhaps soon after his mother died. My hope is that a visit to the National Archives this spring will uncover documents in Beach's pension file that shed much more light on the life of the young soldier whose remains lie today in the national cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md.
On the 11th Connecticut monument at Antietam, Beach's name appears among those killed or mortally wounded during the battle on Sept. 17, 1862. |
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