Abraham Beeler

Major, Paymaster

United States Army

Abraham Beeler, the son of Jacob and Elizabeth Neikirk Schupp Beeler, was born on 2 July 1822, in Washington County, Maryland.  The Beeler Family moved to Mount Carroll, Illinois circa 1825-30.

On 26 November 1846, Abraham married the former Sophia Christian in Mount Carroll.  From this marriage they had five sons; William (who became a prominent dentist in Mount Carroll), Frank A., Albert Eugene, Eddie, and Abraham Jr. (who became a Professor of Music and founding member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra). 

Abraham and his brother Peter owned a general mercantile store in Mount Carroll.  He was also the area dentist.  He went to California in 1850 and spent some time in Orgeon before returning to Illinois.

Abraham enlisted as a Lieutenant First Class with Company S, 34th Infantry Regiment Illinois on 15 August 1861.  There is an unconfirmed story that he was paid $300 to enter the 34th Infantry in place of someone else.  He resigned his commissioned on 21 March 1863 and returned home to Mount Carroll due to having dysentery.  While home, his wife gave birth to their fifth son, Abraham.  Along with his brother Peter, he re-enlisted on 18 March 1864, as a Major and became a Paymaster. 

Having completed payment of soldiers in and near Memphis, Tennessee, in October of 1864, Paymaster William H. Jameson caught the Belle of Saint Louis, bound for St. Louis.  Steaming up the Mississippi with Jameson were five paymasters who worked under him, including Abraham. At about midnight 27 October, the steamer landed at Randolph, Tennessee, some sixty miles above Memphis.  As deckhands began to load some bales of cotton under military permit, a group of fifty to a hundred Confederate guerrillas rushed the steamboat with guns blazing.  The steamboat captain managed to get the boat backed out into the stream, but not before six or eight of the guerrillas had boarded.

The guerillas went straight to the engine room to force the steamboat back to the landing.  The engine room crew, knowing much more about maneuvering the boat than the men who threatened them, skillfully kept it far enough offshore to prevent the others from boarding.  Frustrated, the guerillas went to find the pilot and force him to comply.  As the shore party continued firing on the steamboat, many of the passengers were near panic, expecting to be killed, should the main group of guerillas get aboard.  Military officers had the only side arms on the boat but, except for the paymasters, in their baggage.  While some of the guerrillas began robbing passengers and aiming for the $40,000 in the paymaster’s trunk, two climbed up to seize the pilot.  Abraham and fellow Paymaster Major DeWitt Clinton Smith were close behind.

The guerrillas reached the pilothouse door as the boat closed in on the landing and the main party of guerillas.  Abraham and DeWitt stepped up with revolvers.  As DeWitt came forward, one of the Confederates shot him point blank.  Abraham immediately returned a shot for his friend and turned to face the second guerrilla.  Firing, he killed the second guerrilla, but not soon enough to prevent a shot fired in exchange.  Just at that moment, the engineers reversed the engine, and the steamboat swung back toward deep water.  Guerillas on the deck saved themselves by jumping into the muddy river as their compatriots continued to fire.  Abraham lived until midday and eventually died from his wounds on 28 October.  DeWitt died that same evening.

According to Major Jameson, everyone on board agreed that the two Paymasters had preserved their individual lives, and the steamboat itself for the Union.  "We all felt that they had lost their own lives in their successful efforts to save ours [and] preserve the Government property on board. . . ."  Major Abraham Beeler and Major DeWitt Clinton Smith were conspicuous in their courage and, in death, honored themselves, the Paymaster Corps, and the Army.

Abraham was survived his wife and five sons.

Major Abraham Beeler, Paymaster United States Army, was buried in Mount Carroll’s Oak Hill Cemetery.

Source of information:

1. e-Mail received from Bruce Beeler on 4 January 2006.  Bruce is one of Abraham’s great-great-grandsons.

2. Historical Data Systems, comp. Military Records of Individual Civil War Soldiers. [database on-line] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 1999-. Data compiled by Historical Data Systems of Kingston, Massachusetts.

3.  Welcome to the Carroll County Directory, Mount Carroll City, published 1878 – History of Carroll County.

4.  Carroll County in the Civil War.

5.  e-Mail received from Bruce Beeler on 6 November 2007.