Open main menu
Open main menu
D.E. Beem
(1837 - 1923)
Home State: Indiana
Education: Indiana University, Class of 1858
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 14th Indiana Infantry
Before Antietam
In 1860 he was a 23 year old law student living with his parents and 6 younger siblings on the family farm at Spencer in Owen County, IN. He enlisted and mustered on 7 June 1861 as First Sergeant of Company H, 14th Indiana Infantry. He was appointed First Lieutenant on 15 September 1861 and promoted to Captain on 13 May 1862.
On the Campaign
He led his company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862 ...
I came out safe. Lt [Porter B.] Lundy is killed, nineteen [of the company] are wounded, several mortally ... it was a horrible battle and providence strangely protected me.
The rest of the War
He was discharged at the end of his term of enlistment on 24 June 1864.
After the War
By 1870 and to at least 1910 he was a prosperous lawyer in Spencer, IN and by 1880 also a banker there. He had finally retired in Spencer in 1920.
References & notes
Service basics from the Adjutant General.1 The quote above from a letter he wrote his wife on 18 September 1862 now online from the Indiana Historical Society, source also of his picture from a wartime photograph. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Mahala "Hala" Joslin (1841-1929) in April 1862 and they had 3 children.
Birth
06/24/1837; Spencer, IN
Death
10/23/1923; Spencer, IN; burial in Riverside Cemetery, Spencer, IN
1 State of Indiana, Adjutant General's Office, and William H.H. Terrell, Adjutant General, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana, 8 volumes, Indianapolis: (various) State Printers, 1865-1869, Vol. 2, p. 118; Vol. 4, p. 285 [AotW citation 33469]