John Yates Beall

John Yates Beall
John Yates Beall on the day of his execution
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Service / branch	Confederate States Navy
Years of service	1861-1865
Rank	Acting Master
Battles / wars	American Civil War

John Yates Beall (January 1, 1835 – February 24, 1865) was a Confederate privateer in the American Civil War who was arrested as a spy in New York and executed at Governors Island, New York.

He was born in Jefferson County, Virginia, now West Virginia, on his father's farm, Walnut Grove. He attended the University of Virginia to study law but on the death of his father he left his studies to take up farming in 1855. At the start of the war he joined Bott's Grays, Company G, in the 2nd Virginia Infantry. He received a wound in the lungs which left him incapable of active service.

Inspired by John Hunt Morgan, he conceived a plan to launch privateers on the Great Lakes. He presented his plan to Confederate authorities, who were interested but declined to act since it might endanger the neutral relations with England. However, Beall was commissioned as acting master in the Confederate States Navy, though not given a command. He then proceeded on his own as a privateer, active in the areas of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. He assembled a crew of 18 men, and commanded 2 boats called The Raven and The Swan. His second in command was a 22-year old Scotsman named Bennett G. Burley. Beall was captured in November, 1863, and was jailed at Fort McHenry, in Baltimore until he was exchanged on May 5, 1864.

On his release he returned to Canada in order to implement a plan to release Confederate prisoners on Johnson's Island. On September 18, 1864, with a small group of volunteers he captured the ship Philo Parsons, and then the Island Queen, which was scuttled. However, at this point the crew refused to act further on the mission without outside assistance. Beall reluctantly agreed and together they sailed for Sandwich, Canada, (the former name of and now a neighborhood of Windsor, Ontario) where they scuttled the Philo Parsons and separated, all escaping arrest except for Bennett G. Burley, whose extradition was demanded by U.S. authorities.

Beall then decided to free some captured Confederate officers by derailing a passenger train, but he and a companion, George S. Anderson were arrested in Niagara, New York on December 16, 1864. They were imprisoned at Fort Lafayette, New York. Anderson agreed to testify against Beall in return for leniency, and General John Adams Dix ordered a military commission for Beall's trial, which began on January 17, 1865. He was represented by James T. Brady. The arrest of Beall had not been published in any of the newspapers, and Confederate authorities were unaware of his status. On February 8 the commission found him guilty on all charges and sentenced him to death.

The story of Beall's arrest and trial then appeared in the newspapers, and efforts were made to save him. Appeals were made by many prominent people, including six U.S. Senators and ninety-one members of Congress, but President Lincoln refused to intervene and Beall was executed on February 24, 1865. Journalist Robert K. Elder documented Beall’s last words in the 2010 book Last Words of the Executed.

There is a legend discussed by Lloyd Lewis that Lincoln was approached by John Wilkes Booth who was a friend of Beall's to save his life, and that the President agreed to do so. But Lincoln changed his mind (the legend goes) when he was approached by his friend and Secretary of State William Henry Seward, who insisted that Beall's activities had been dangerous to the citizen's of New York State (Seward's state). Supposedly a furious Booth determined to kill Lincoln and Seward for this betrayal after Beall was executed.

References

• The South in the Building of the Nation, The Southern Historical Publication Society, Richmond, VA, 1909, Volume XI, pgs. 61-62.
• Beall, John Yates & Daniel B. Lucas, Memoir of John Yates Beall: His Life; Trial; Correspondence; Diary; and Private Manuscript Found Among His Papers, Including His Own Account of the Raid on Lake Erie, J. Lovell, 1865
• Trial of John Y. Beall: As a Spy and Guerrillero, by Military Commission, United States. Army. Military Commission, D. Appleton and Co., 1865
• Headley, John W, Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, Neale Publishing Co., 1906. Reprint ed. 1981 Time-Life Books Inc.
• Horan, James D. Confederate Agent, A Discovery in History, Crown, 1954.
• Lewis, Lloyd. Myths After Lincoln, New York: Grosset & Dunlap - Grosset's Universal Library, 1929, 1957, p. 169-170.