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Born on August 20, 1831 in Lexington, Virginia, Sergeant John
Henry Beeton was a member of the Virginia Militia known as the
Rockbridge Rifles. Virginia Governor Letcher established the Rockbridge
Rifles on November 17, 1859. The Rockbridge Rifles were raised by the
Governor after the raid on Harper's Ferry by John Brown. Brown's raid
sent shockwaves throughout the Commonwealth during that time
immediately preceding the secession.
On April 17, 1861 the Virginia Legislature voted for secession from the
Union. The Rockbridge Rifles were ordered to report to Harper's Ferry
and on April 18, 1861 at about 1:00pm the Rockbridge Rifles left
Lexington, Virginia for Harper's Ferry.
John Henry Beeton and his brother, Robert Elison Beeton, became
members of the 27th Virginia Infantry Company H, according to
court records in Lexington, Virginia. John Henry Beeton is listed as
the Second Sergeant. The 27th Virginia Infantry along with the 2nd,
4th, 5th, and 33rd Virginia Infantry regiments were organized into a
brigade at the outset of the war under the command of Thomas Jonathan
"Stonewall" Jackson. These five regiments became known as the
"Stonewall Brigade", the only official "nickname" recognized by the
Confederate government. The 27th was the smallest of the five
regiments, yet the 27th was unsurpassed in battlefield valor.
At First Manassas, a burst of canister brought down 1/3 of its members.
Regrouping, the ambulatory remnants charged downhill, led by a 50-year
old captain into the guns of Rickett's and Griffin's artillery
batteries. When the Federal guns fell into Confederate hands it was the
flag of the 27th Virginia that fluttered overhead. From its meager
ranks, the 27th lost 122 members killed, wounded and missing, a total
unmatched by any other regiment in the Stonewall Brigade.
After the First Battle of Manassas, Sergeant Beeton was ordered by the
Governor of Virginia, John Letcher, to report to the Virginia Military
Institute and assume the duties of Institute's Ordinance Officer. John
Henry Beeton and Robert Elison Beeton, John's brother, were gunsmiths
in Lexington, Virginia before the war. Their father, John Beeton, had
been a gunsmith in Lexington as well from about 1815 till his death in
1848.
Sergeant Beeton performed those duties throughout most of the war.
However, during 1864 Federal General Hunter attacked the Virginia
Military Institute, burned the Governor's home in Lexington and
destroyed the Virginia Military Institute's barracks, the Institute and
a portion of the town of Lexington.
An eyewitness account was handed down of these events from John Henry
Beeton's son, William Rolison Beeton, born in 1858 in Lexington.
William Rolison Beeton reported as follows:
"When I was a boy about 5 or 6 years old my, which makes this about
1864, we received word from a courier that Federal General Hunter was
enroute. Townspeople left the area by carts, horseback, mules and
walking as the sound of the Federal artillery could be heard shelling
the town and the barracks of the Virginia Military Institute. We fled
into the mountains and felt some easier as we put distant between us
and the Federal bombardment. I saw shells and cannon balls exploding in
the surrounding fields where the present V. M. I. Alumni Stadium is
located. Of course, we were terrified, but in a short time when we were
a few miles along our way and we felt safer. We stayed in the hills for
several days which gave the Yankees time to loot the town, burn the
V.M.I. barracks and Governor Letcher's home before moving on to
Lynchburg."
John Henry Beeton decided to get back into active duty in the war, and
left Lexington on foot to rejoin the Confederate Army. His objective
was Danville, Virginia, but the railroads were in the hands of the
Yankees so he walked the entire distance of more than 200 miles, and
entered on duty with Captain Otey's battery of Artillery in which he
served until the final surrender at Appomattox. He was foreman in the
artillery battery according to the records of the National Archives.
His wife, Anna, died in 1883 and is buried in Stonewall Jackson
Memorial Cemetery along with their son, George, who died in 1895
in a rock quarry accident.
Finally on February 4, 1904 John Henry Beeton passed away and he
was buried, along with many of his comrades, about thirty paces
from the tomb of Stonewall Jackson, his old Commander.