As Memorial Day 2022 approaches I thought that a fitting tribute to commemorate this day would be to write a biographical narrative about one of my own ancestors.
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Do you have an ancestor who died while serving as a soldier for the United States of America? I do, in fact several. But this year I chose my three times great-granduncle, Chauncey F. Beam. He is a part of the maternal side of my family.
But first, please indulge me as I discuss the origins and meaning of Memorial Day.
Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the people who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2022 will occur on Monday, May 30.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings, and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.
Memorial Day commemorates all people who have died in U.S. military service. It’s not to be confused with Veterans Day which celebrates the service of U.S. military veterans, or with Armed Forces Day, which honors men and women currently in service.
Memorial Day began a few years after the Civil War, in 1868. An organization of Union veterans established the holiday, then known as Decoration Day, as a time to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers. From then until the present day, the solemn holiday has been formally observed at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, which encourages Americans to observe a moment of silence at 3 p.m. local time to remember those who have died in service.
“I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion,” then-Congressman James Garfield said in an 1868 Decoration Day address at Arlington, which still captures the true meaning of Memorial Day today. “If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung.”
With that said, I would like to honor my three times great-grand uncle on my maternal side of my family, Chauncey F. Beam.
The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 (with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3). It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.
It was in this battle of the Civil War that Chauncey F. Beam was killed on the battlefield while engaging in combat with the enemy.
Chauncey was born in Jenner Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania in 1831 to Christopher Beam and Mary Bell. Jenner Township is located in the mid-southeastern area of Pennsylvania bordering West Virginia. As a child, he lived in the mostly wooded and agricultural area of Pennsylvania and eventually became a tinner in the fabricated steel industry. As was the reality in most families of the 1830s he had many siblings.
Chauncey had practiced the occupation of “tinner” during his youth and by the 1850 U.S. census, we find him living in Somerset Borough in Pennsylvania living with another tinner and his wife. He was 23 years old. A tinner is an alternate term for a tinsmith. A tinsmith is a term used for a metalworker who made or repaired tinware.
In the 1860 U.S. Census, Chauncey, age 31, was listed as head of household residing in Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania living with his father, Christopher Beam, 60, two sisters, Sarah, 22, and Maria, 20, and a journeyman tinner by the name of John E. McNutt, 21. It was recorded that he owned $500 worth of real estate and $1000 worth of personal property.
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War broke out at Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor when Confederate shore batteries under the command of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard began a bombardment on the Union-held fort marking the beginning of the bloodiest war fought in America. It would continue until the Spring of 1965.
In 2011, demographic historian Dr. J. David Hacker published “A Census-Based Count of Civil War Dead,” in the scholarly quarterly, Civil War History, reported that his in-depth study of recently digitized census data concluded that an accurate estimate of Civil War deaths is about 750,000, with a range from 650,000 to as many as 850,000 dead.
Hacker, an associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota, believes that a fresh, detailed examination of the numbers from the 1850, 1860, and 1870 U.S. census tabulations reveals a massive reduction in the young male population in 1870 that would reflect the human toll of the war.
It was into this war that Chauncey F. Beam, an unmarried man, would enlist as a Union infantry soldier at Latrobe, Pennsylvania on 19 September 1861 when he was 30 years old. Chauncey mustered into the 53rd Pennsylvania Voluntary Infantry on 5 November 1861 in Pennsylvania in Company K from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. His enlistment rank was Sergeant.
The Pennsylvania 53rd Voluntary Infantry Company K’s motto was “We Might As Well Die Here” and participated in the following engagements: Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Gaines Mill, Peach Orchard, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, Wilderness, Po River, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom, Reams Station, Fort Stedman, Hatchers Run, Appomattox Court House. Chauncey participated in many of these battles during the three and half years while he served Company K.
His occupation of tinner was probably of great value during those years in repairing canteen items, guns, cannons, and other artillery in addition to his prowess on the battlefield.
The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 (with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3). It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.
It was in the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia
where Chauncey lost his life on the battlefield. He is buried in Cold Harbor National Cemetery, Mechanicsville, Hanover County, Virginia.
U.S., Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865, Chauncey F. Beam
So, I challenge you to research the life of one of the American soldiers who gave their life for their country on this Memorial Day. It is a great way to honor those who have given all to the United States of America.
Headstone of Chauncey F. Beam in Cold Harbor National Cemetery
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