Hung As A Confederate Spy

John Yates Beall was hung in New York City February 24^th 1865 as a Confederate spy.

John Yates Beall was born January 1^st 1835 on his family’s farm; Walnut Grove, in Jefferson County, Virginia the son of George Brooke and Janet (Yates) Beall.  He began the study of law at the University of Virginia, but after his father’s death in 1855 he left school to take up farming.  Beall joined the militia company known as “Bott’s Grays”.  They would be present at the hanging of John Brown December 2^nd 1859.

When the Civil War started “Bott’s Grays” became Company G of the 2^nd Virginia Infantry.  Beall was wounded in chest at the Battle of First Manassas, and deemed unfit for service.  Beall then took up the roll of privateer.  He tried to talk the Confederate government into giving him a commission to operate on the Great Lakes, but they declined fearing its effect on relations with England.  So with two boats and 18 men as crew he operated on the Potomac River and in the Chesapeake Bay.  Beall was captured in November of 1863 and after being exchanged in May 1864, he moved to the north shore of Lake Erie in Canada where he plotted to release Confederate Prisoners of War being held on Johnson’s Island.

When that plan failed Beall moved onto a plan to free some Confederate officers by derailing a train they were on.  This time Union authorities captured him and his companion George S Anderson at Niagara, New York on December 16^th 1864.  Anderson agreed to testify against Beall for a lesser sentence.  Union General John Adams Dix ordered Beall’s trail to begin on January 17^th 1865.  He was found guilty of guerrilla activities and spying against the Union by the military commission on February 8^th 1865, and transported to Fort Columbus on Governors Island in the New York Harbor.  Appeals were made to save his life all the way up to Abraham Lincoln but no stay of execution was coming Beall’s way.  He was hung February 24^th 1865.  He is buried in the Zion Episcopal Churchyard, in Charlestown, West Virginia.