Orrin William Beach

He enlisted in Little Falls, Herkimer County, NY on 1 May 1861 and mustered on 15 June 1861 as a Sergeant in Company B, 34th New York Infantry. He was appointed First Sergeant of the Company, date not given.

He was with his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 11 December 1862 (to date from 30 May 1862) and transferred to Company G. He was appointed First Lieutenant on 19 June 1863, but was not mustered at that rank, mustering out with the Company on 30 June 1863 in Albany.

He enrolled again, on 4 January 1864 in Elmira, and was commissioned Captain of Company F, 16th New York Heavy Artillery. He was briefly discharged about 1 March 1864 by an examining board, but was soon reinstated and served to muster-out with his Company on 21 August 1865 in Washington, DC.

In 1865 he was a shoemaker in Little Falls, NY and in 1870 he was working in a shoe factory in Utica, NY. By 1875 he was living in Rochester and was a shoemaker there until 1896 when he was admitted to the New York State Soldier and Sailors Home in Bath, NY. He was a resident of the Home at his death at age 74 in 1905.

Basic service information from the State of New York.1 His presence at Antietam from a December 1862 letter he wrote the father of Corporal Arthur A O'Keefe of Company B; a transcription contributed by Kathy McGerty, via the FamilySearch database. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1870 and 1900, and the New York State Census of 1865, 1875, and 1905. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture, taken while a Lieutenant in the 34th Infantry, is from a photograph in the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

He married Louisa Mary Delong (1831-1906) and they had 7 children between 1856 and 1871.

The New York State Military Museum also has a fine photograph of him taken in 1864 when he was Captain in the 16th Heavy Artillery.

03/21/1831; Greene County, NY

09/17/1905; Bath, NY; burial in Bath National Cemetery, Bath, NY