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Alexander Mitchell Beattie (often misspelled Beatty) (July 29, 1828 – March 7, 1907) was a Union Army soldier during the American Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor for valor at the Battle of Cold Harbor during the American Civil War.

Biography
Alexander Mitchell Beattie was born in Ryegate, VT on July 29, 1828. He was the eleventh child and and sixth son of James M. Beattie (January 12 1776-December 30, 1866} and Margaret Jane Gillespie Beattie (1789-1862). His parents were immigrants who were both born in Ulster, Ireland (his father was born in Britton Walls, Co. Antrim). His father came to America in 1801, initially to Armenia, NY, before moving to Ryegate, a town sponsored by the Scottish-American Company of Farmers in 1804. He was a member of Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, also known as Covenanters, and joined the congregation there and later became a deacon. He sold Irish linen throughout Vermont before moving his business to Richmond, VA. Returning to Ryegate in 1807, to buy some woodland, he cleared the land and built a farm, marrying Margaret, a niece of the minister in 1808.

Beattie was educated at Peacham and St. Johnsbury Academies. He taught school in St Johnsbury through his twenties until he moved to California to work in business and mining in 1857. He only stayed a year before returning to St. Johnsbury and to work in his brothers', David and Thomas's lumber business in Maidstone, VT. A respected 32-year-old businessman and local leader, like his brothers, he was a War Democrat. At the start of hostilities, he recruited a company of lumbermen for the war effort.

Military Service
Serving in the Union Army from June 1861 until July 1864, Beatty enlisted his company in the 3rd Vermont Infantry and received a 2nd Lieutenant's commission on June 11, 1861. His company became Company I, under the command of Capt. Thomas Nelson, and was sworn into federal service with the regiment at Camp Baxter, St. Johnsbury, on July 16, 1861.

1861
With 881 of his comrades in the 3rd Vermont, Beattie departed for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 24, on a train of 22 cars. With stops at Bellows Falls, Springfield, Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia, the regiment arrived two days later in Washington. In Washington, Beattie got a new regimental commander, Col. William F. Smith. The regiment stayed at Camp Lyon, on Georgetown Heights until Saturday, July 27, when it marched up the Potomac to the Chain Bridge. Once across, they moved into Camp Lyon. They joined at that site the 6th Maine Infantry, a battery, and a company of cavalry. By August 12, the 2nd Vermont Infantry and the 33rd New York Infantry had joined them. In command of the camp, Smith was soon promoted to brigadier general of volunteers, so Beattie saw his third regimental commander within a month, as its lieutenant colonel, Breed N. Hyde, took command.

For many weeks in the early fall, Beattie and Company I saw duty erecting earthworks and turning the camp into a fort. On Tuesday, September 11, with the regiment, Company I participated in a reconnaissance to and beyond Lewinsville, Virginia, where it engaged Confederate skirmishers.. Returning to the camp, it came under fire from a Rebel battery, losing one man killed, one mortally wounded, and injuring five others. Two weeks later another reconnaissance to Lewinsville resulted in no contact and no casualties..

During the next two weeks, the 4th and 5th Vermont regiments joined Smith's division. On Wednesday, October 9, the Vermont regiments moved to Camp Griffin, about four miles from Chain Bridge. Here, on October 24, the 6th Vermont Infantry arrived. By now, Beattie and the 3rd were in a brigade commanded by an Ohioan William T. H. Brooks in a division now commanded by Smith. Between June and September, for a time, the brigade also included the 26th New Jersey Infantry. Through Smith's efforts, the 6th Vermont was added, completing the initial organization of the "Old Vermont Brigade," at that time, the only brigade in the Army of the Potomac made up of regiments from one state.

Beattie continued to serve in Company I through the fall and must have demonstrated his ability as he was promoted to First Lieutenant of the company on Thursday, November 7. Through the remainder of the fall and into the winter, Beattie remained with his company at Camp Griffin training, erecting fortifications, and serving in garrison in the defenses of Washington.

1862
In the spring of 1862, on March 10, Beattie went with his regiment down the river to Alexandria.. After almost a fortnight, he boarded a transport with his company on Sunday March 23, and arrived down the Chesapeake Bay at Fortress Monroe the next day.. On the peninsula, in April, his brigade was incorporated into the Army of the Potomac (AoP) as the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, VI Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin and took part in Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.

Beattie first saw action in the Battle at Lee's Mill on April 16, 1862, when McCellan had Smith send a force to seize and occupy Garrow Ridge at Lee's Mill, overlooking Dam No. 1 on the Warwick River to prevent the Rebels from conducting further work on a fort they were building at the river's edge. Beattie and Company I, along with five other 3rd Vermont companies and three other regiments advanced to the stone walls along the river and opened fire on Rebel artillery across the creek rapidly driving them off and suppressing the return musketry from rifle pits held by the 15th North Carolina. At 3:00 p.m., 192 men from companies D, F, E, and K dashed across the river and captured the rifle pits. Despite prior promises, no reinforcements followed and the four companies and their compatriots along the stone walls across the river watched anxiously as Confederate forces gathered. When the inevitable counterattack struck thirty minutes later these men were driven back across the river with great losses. While Beattie and Company I were unscathed in the action, the small force that crossed suffered 92 casualties.

Beattie next fought at Battle of Williamsburg where the Vermont Brigade was sent to reinforce Maj. Gen. Hancock's successful attack on the right. As the army neared Richmond, Beattie and his company spent almost a month on fatigue and picket duty perparing for the planned siege of the city. All that changed when Lee took command of the Rebels' Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). Seizing the intiative he attacked U.S. forces during a series of engagements known as the Seven Days Battles. Beattie and his men were in heavy fighting at Garnett's & Golding's Farm, Savage's Station (where his company commander as well as brigade commander were wounded),, and at White Oak Swamp. After these defeats, on Tuesday night, July 1, Beattie's division were in reserve in positions on Turkey Creek in Charles City County during the Malvern Hill. That night in the darkness the AoP began a nighttime withdrawal. Beattie and his company retreated to Harrison's Landing arriving early on the morning of July 2. Beattie would remain there with his regiment until August 16 when they moved to Fortress Monroe to board transports back to Alexandria.

VI Corps remained at Alexandria during Pope's Virgina Campaign and were reunited with the rest of the army for the Maryland campaign, Lee's invasion. After Lee invaded Maryland, McClellan learned that Lee had split his forces from a copy of an order, known as Special Order 191, that his troops had found. To counter him, McClellan moved west to go over South Mountain, part of the Blue Ridge mountains, and strike isolated parts of Lee's army. Beattie, in the 3rd Vermont, was in the Left Wing, under Franklin, within the VI Corps. Lee soon found out about the orders and quickly recalled Longstreet to reinforce the South Mountain passes of the Blue Ridge mountains to block McClellan's advance. Brooks had recovered from his wounds and resumed command of his brigade, and under him, Beattie and his company were part of the force sent to take the southernmost pass, Crampton's Gap. On Sunday, September 14, Beattie was with the 3rd as the brigade charged up South Mountain led by the 4th Vermont. Despite artillery fire, the brigade had taken the summit and captured the 16th Virginia Infantry's colors. With the passes in hand, on Monday and Tuesday, the AoP moved through and into positions along Antietam Creek. On Wednesday, September 17, Beattie, in VI Corps moved up to Antietam Creek.

Due to their short five-mile march down from the pass, McClellan kept VI Corps in reserve for the morning of the Battle of Antietam (initially on the left and then the center), so Beattie and his company saw no movement until midday. The Rebels had briefly recaptured the high ground in McClellan's center, across the road from the Dunkard Church, that overlooked the sunken road in the ANV's center. Beattie and the 3rd Vermont, commanded by their old commander Maj. Gen. Smith, swept forward into the woods by the church to clear them it. Passing through the carnage littering the cornfield, Beattie and his comrades swept over the hill at a run halting at the end of the cornfield while corps elements cleared the woods by the church and then pulled back in alignment with Beattie's division. After half an hour, VI Corps pulled back a further 200 yards to cover the high ground.

With the high ground in U.S. forces posession, Lee's line was vulnerable, but instead of attacking, McClellan intead started massing his artillery and eventually placing 44 guns on it. Although, Beattie and his men had made no contact with the Rebel infantry as their brigade was in the rear of Smith's advance, they came under severe artillery fire while kept on the high ground protecting the artillery. Beattie's corps' position on the high ground ensured McCellan never lost this ground for the remainder of the battle. With dusk, the battle ended. The next day Beattie and his men remained in their positions on the high ground facing Lee's army, but McClellan did not attack.

After Antietam, Beattie and his regiment went into camp at Hagerstown. Beattie's demonstration of leadership and performance over the Peninsula and Maryland campaigns earned him a promotion to captain on Saturday, October 13. He immediately received command of Company I to relieve Samuel Pingree who had been promoted to major. In Hagerstown, Beattie saw important changes in the corps take place, receiving one of IV Corps' divisions as its 3rd division. His corps commander, Franklin, was promoted to the command of the Left Grand Division, to which VI and I Corps were assigned. His division commander Smith moved up to corps command. General Slocum was promoted to the command of the XII Corps, and Brooks succeeded Slocum in command of the 1st Division, while Brig. Gen. Albion P. Howe succeeded to the command of Smith's (2nd) Division. Brooks, popular with men of the brigade, was relieved by Michigander Col Henry Whiting, commander of the 2nd Vermont, of whom the briagde's men had a less than stellar opinion.

Beattie and his new command remained at Hagerstown until the end of October when the regiment began moving south to Virginia as McClellan shadowed Lee into Virginia. Meanwhile, dissatisfied with McClellan's slow movement, Lincoln relieved himn on Wednesday, November 5, 1862, and replaced him with MGEN Burnside. Burnside planned a late fall offensive that the relied on quick movement and deception. Concentrating his army in a visible fashion near Warrenton, he would feign a movement from there toward Richmond, then rapidly shift southeast to Falmouthand cross the Rappahannock River to Fredericksburg, hoping to steal a march on Lee, and advance rapidly along the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) to Richmond. Washington approved, and Halleck wired Burnside, "The President has just assented to your plan," adding for emphasis: "He thinks that it will succeed if you move rapidly; otherwise not."

With rapid movement key to catching Lee, Beattie and his company, as part of Franlin's Left Grand Division, arrived opposite Fredericksburg at Falmouth on Wednesday, November 19. Since the antebellum bridges connecting the two towns had been destroyed during Johnston's withdrawal a year before, any crossing would need to be done at a ford or with pontoon bridges. Unfortunately for the men of the 3rd Vermont and Burnside, the required pontoons were not ready and would not arrive until the end of November. By the time they arrived, Lee was ensconsed in strong defensive positions across the river.

Union engineers began to assemble six pontoon bridges before dawn on Thursday, December 11, three directly across from the city, and three farther south, near the confluence of the Rappahannock and Deep Run that Beattie and his comrades would use. The bridging at the town was a successful, though hotly contested crossing that finished at nightfall. Meanwhile, the bridges south of town were completed by 11:00 a.m. Thursday. While Franklin was ordered at 4:00 p.m. to cross his entire command, only one brigade crossed before dark. Beattie and his brigade mates crossed at dawn and all of Franklin's men were across by 1:00 p.m. Friday. Pushing forward to form a line on the Richmond Stage Road, Beattie and his colleagues found themselves looking across a gully containing the RF&P at Prospect Hill occupied by two divisions of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Throughout Friday afternoon, fire was exchanged with Confederate skirmishers who had crossed the tracks to probe U.S. Forces. Finding out the size of the force across the railroad, early on Saturday, December 13, Jackson recalled Early and D.H. Hill from down river to rejoin his corps.

Burnside's verbal instructions on Friday to his Grand Division commanders outlined a main attack by Franklin, supported by Hooker, on the southern flank, while Sumner made a secondary attack on the northern flank. When Burnside visited his southern flank st 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Franklin asked for definite orders for a morning attack by the grand division, so he could have adequate time to position his men overnight but received none. When he received them in the morning, he was surprised to find that he would not use his entire force, but only one to seize Prospect Hill.

Saturday, December 13, a cold and overcast day saw the 3rd Vermont and its brigade enveloped in a heavy fog in its position forward of the road slightly downslope with its right anchored on the steep bank of Deep Run. The fog made it impossible for the armies to see each other. The 4,500 men of the Pennsylvania Reserves, the third and smallest a division in I Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade,would make the attack that day. Beattie and his cohort would play a supporting role securing Franklin's right flank. At around 10:30 a.m., the fog started lifting, and Meade began his move. Meade's men moved forward around 1:00 p.m., and despite reaching the crest of the wooded ridge, did not have the force to hold and fell back down to the railroad. To Meade's right, Brig. Gen. John Gibbon's division also attacked, but despite also reaching the crest, also withdrew back across the railroad embankment. Jackson counterattacked with Early's division whose orders to pursue as far as the railroad, were derailed by the chaos as Rebels went as far as the Richmond Stage Road. Union artillery crews and infantry stopped them, and intense combat began to play out astride the railroad.

When Pender's brigade in A. P. Hill's division moved forward, Beattie and the 3rd aided the 2nd in repulsing it. In the afternoon, Law's brigade in Hood's division of Longstreet's corps made an unexpected probe south from Marye's Heights. The 3rd Vermont was sent forward into the Deep Run ravine to meet it. Held in position lying down just inside the ravine, their exposed heads were seen by advancing Rebels who opened fire. The men, eager to open fire, were restrained as enemy was not near enough. Finally, they were ordered to their feet and unleashed a fire that shredded the left of the 16th North Carolina resulting in the 3rd taking sixteen of the regiment prisoner. Beattie and his men's fire combined with that of the rest of the brigade to result in nearly 300 casualties in Pender's brigade. Sporadic musketry continued until nightfall. Through the night, Beattie and his men heard the screams of hundreds of wounded men and horses. Dry sage grass around them caught fire and burned many men alive.

On Sunday, the two armies faced each other but no attacks beyond skirmishing occurred. On Monday, December 14, Beattie and his regiment were relieved and marched back across the pontoons. Beattie and his company went into winter quarters at Falmouth. Baettie's regiment suffered comparatively little compard with the rest of the army with two killed, one mortally wounded, and seven wounded. In fact the men of the 3rd had acquitted themselvs well inflicting greater casualties on their foes including taking prisoners. The southern half of the battle, meant to be Burnside's main effort, produced roughly equal casualties (about 4,000 Confederate, 5,000 Union), yet the northern flank, originally intended as a diversion, was a debacle with a lopsided loss ratio of about eight U.S. casualties for each Rebel.

1863
During the winter encampment, Beattie and his brigade was beset by various illnesses, as was the rest of the AoP, that by the start of the new year, only 2760 of the brigade's 3933 were fit for duty. beattie's regiment in its morning report of January 7, showed an aggregate of 791 men, of whom 573 were present for duty and 204 on the sick list. As the full calamity of the battle became known, Burnside came under strong attacks from politicians and the press. The AoP was rife with recrimminations and a lack of confidence in Burnside. Beattie saw his regimental commander, Hyde, court-martialed for cowardice at Fredericksburg. As the proceedings progressed and the result became apparent, Hyde resigned on Thursday, January 15, and was replaced by Thomas O. Seaver.

Stung and desperate to restore his reputation and the AoP's morale, he planned for a new offensive, again using feints to distract Lee while he crossed the Rappahannock River south of Fredericksburg. Meanwhile, he would launch a large-scale cavalry strike upriver that would cross amd move around and south of Richmond to attack Lee's supply lines in a wide arc to Suffolk held by U.S. forces before returning via ship back to Falmouth. Unfortunately for Burnside, his imaginative and inspired plan was doomed to failure. The cavalry operation was scuppered when it reached river by a telegram from Lincoln forbidding any major army movements without prior approval from the White House. Having kept his plans limited to a small inner circle, he was unaware that some officers within the AoP had gone to Washington to express their lack of confidence in him. After going to Washinton and getting approval, Burnside revived his plan with changes. Instead of crossing the Rappahannock south of Fredericksburg, he initially planned to move upstream and cross at U.S. Ford, due north of the Chancellorsville crossroads.

The offensive began with a westward move on Tuesday, January 20, 1863, in unseasonably mild weather, yet initially the roads Beattie and his men marched on were still hard and frozen. Burnside altered his plan to aim at Banks' Ford for a closer, quicker crossing at dawn, January 21, the engineers pushing five pontoon bridges. After that, two of his grand divisions would be over the river in four hours while the remaing grand division would distract Lee by repeating the December crossing at Fredericksburg. By nightfall on the first day, the roads had thawed and rain began so that by the Wednesday morning, Beattie and his men were marching in a quagmire. Despite fifteen pontoons already on the river, nearly spanning it, the continuing rains left the AoP swamped in the mud. The thinner foliage of winter also left the now sluggishly moving army in full view of the enemy pickets across the river. Beattie and his men received occasional musketry and catcalls, but suffered no losses.

The storm continued delaying the AoP's movements, giving Lee ample time to follow, although making no attempt to interfere beyond sharpshooters, who peppered away on all occasions. The rain continued Thursday and into Friday preventing a crossing. On Friday, Burnside finally became resigned to his fate and gave the order for the army to retire to its quarters. By Saturday, Beattie and the rest of the AoP were back in camp. After the march, Burnside wanted to purge of the Army of the Potomac's leadership, eliminating a number of generals who he felt were responsible for the failures of Fredericksburg and the Mud March. In reality, he had no power to dismiss anyone without the approval of Congress, and he offered his resignation from the AoP. Beattie and his men received a fifth commander when on January 25, Hooker took command.

Beattie and the men of the AoP soon saw a marked improvement in camp life as Hooker improved/fixed the daily diet of the troops, improved the camp sanitary system, fixed pay problems, fixed the quartermaster system, added and monitored company cooks, made several hospital reforms, improved the furlough system, gave orders to stem rising desertion, improved drills, and introduced stronger officer training. He also reorganized the AoP, discarding Burnside's grand division system He consolidated the cavalry into a separate corps but dispersed his artillery battalions to the control of the infantry division commanders. Beattie and other men in the AoP saw that Hooker cared about them and morale rose.

Beattie and his comrades set about cleaning up the camp laying out regular streets and realigning the tents with these streets. A fellow Vermonter noted that the surrounding countryside had been stripped of all timber growth and fences and that countless houses had been durned to the ground. The men continued drilling and training every day as winter turned to spring. In February, the Vermont Brigade's unpopular commander, Whiting, resigned and was replaced by Lewis A. Grant who like his predecessor had been commander of the 2nd Vermont.

As Beattie and his men prepared for operations in the spring, the AoP had organized a new Bureau of Military Information (BMI) set up by Hooker's new chief of staff, Grig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield. As he received the more complete information correlated from these additional sources, Hooker realized that to avoid the bloodbath of a direct frontal attacks, he could only cross the Rappahannock "by stratagem," and planned on cavalry raid getting between Fredericksburg and Richmond and making a double envelopment of Lee's army. Heavy rains delayed the cavalry raid, so Hooker was forced to create a new plan that had his cavalry and three of his corps crossing the river simultaneously. While the cavalry would make a deep strategic raid, 42,000 men of V, XI, and XII Corps) would stealthily cross the Rappahannock upriver at Kelly's Ford and then proceed south across the Rapidan, concentrate at the Chancellorsville crossroads, and attack Lee's army from the west.

Beattie and his men would be in the second half of the double envelopment and attack the ANV from the east. I and VI Corps would cross the Rappahannock below Fredericksburg and threaten to attack the Confederate right flank. Meanwhile, III Corps and one division of the II Corps would remain visible in their camps at Falmouth to divert Confederate attention from the turning movement. Hooker anticipated that Lee would either retreat or forced to attack on unfavorable terrain.

Hooker's plan worked well, crossing on Thursday, April 30, before being detected and Lee reacted accordingly. He left Early and his division, reinforced with two brigades and artillery, to hold Fredericksburg on Friday while he marched west to deal with Hooker's main thrust at Chancellorsville. Mostly deployed south of Fredericksburg, Early was ordered by Lee to watch the I, III, and VI Coprs remaining across the river. If attacked and defeated, he was to retreat southward to protect the supply lines. If the Union force moved to reinforce Hooker, then he was to leave a covering force and rejoin Lee with the remainder of his troops.

Beattie's corps and II Corps seized control of several crossings on April 29, laying down pontoon bridges in the early morning hours, and one division each from I and VI Corps crossed the river. During the evening of May 2, Sedgwick received orders to attack Early with his remaining forces. The men soon found themselves on the same ground they had held in December. Sedgwick moved his forces into Fredericksburg during dawn on May 3, originally planning to attack the ends of Marye's Heights, but instead sent VI Corps against the Confederate center on the heights, commanded by Brig. Gen. William Barksdale. Beattie and his men were marched north to the town and held in reserve in the third division in the column of attack. Although repulsed, the Federals noticed the Rebel right flank looked unprotected. Sedgwick received word from his subordinates about the weak Rebel right of the line on the heights with a gap between it and Early south of the town, and he planned accordingly. Beattie and his men, like all the men in the impending attack were ordered to drop their packs and to refrain from firing until they reached the crest. Sedgwick launched this attack against the Rebel right simultanous with an assault on the dreaded stonewall along the sunken road in the Confederate center using troops from all three VI Corps divisions. The 3rd Vermont was on the left of the attack and advanced up the Lee's Hill at the southern end of the Rebel line. The men in VI Corps moved at the double-quick as the enemy poured musketry and artillery into them, tearing gaps in the formations. Beattie and his brigade swept up the hill just as other units breached the line at the stone wall that had not been reached in December. These assaults were too much for the defenders who were pushed the Confederate forces off the ridge. Barksdale retreated to Lee's Hill, where he attempted to make another stand but was again forced to retreat southward. Early, occupying a line on the hills overlooking the railroad south of town, suddenly found himself outflanked by overwhelming numbers to his north and withdrew.

Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Captain, Company F, 3rd Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 5, 1864. Entered service at: Guildhall, Vermont. Born: July 29, 1828, Ryegate, Vermont. Date of issue: April 25, 1894.

Citation:

"The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain Alexander Mitchell Beatty, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 5 June 1864, while serving with Company F, 3d Vermont Infantry, in action at Cold Harbor, Virginia. Captain Beatty removed, under a hot fire, a wounded member of his command to a place of safety."

Postwar
After mustering out, Beattie returned to Ryegate. His mother had passed away while he was taking part in the Siege of Yorktown. He worked for his father's business until his father passed away in 1866 and he moved northeast to Brunswick, VT to start his own lumbering business. A Democrat, he was Brunswick's state representative from 1867-1868 in the Vermont House of Representatives, the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly. In 1869, he moved his business down the Connecticut River to Lancaster, NH, where his brothers, David had expanded successfully. In Lancaster that year, at age 41, he married Connecticut-born 22-year-old, Celestia Congdon, who had moved with her family to town between 1850 and 1852.

On February 26, 1871, they had a daughter, Mabel Alexander. He became successful and expanded his business into Pittsburgh, NH and Granby VT. In the 1880 census, he was living in Lancaster on Bellows Farm in Lancaster with his wife, daughter, and a farmhand. He continued to be active in the community. He was also involved in veterans organizations and was elected a companion of the Vermont Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States on May 10, 1892 at its annual meeting in Burlington, VT. On May 31, 1892, his 22-year-old daughter Mabel married 35-year-old widower, Dr. Charles D. Sawin, M.D. of Somerville, MA, in Lancaster. The year of his daughter's wedding, Lancaster's citizens elected him to the New Hampshire House of Representatives where he served from 1893-1894.

While in office, he was notified that he had earned the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Cold Harbor on July 5, 1864. On April 25, 1894, he was awarded it. By the 1900 vensus, Captain Beattie was at 71, still working and living at Bellows Farm with his wife, two employees, and a servant. After living in Lancaster for 37 years, Beattie died of old age at 78 on March 7, 1897, survived by his wife, daughter, and son-in-law.