ed
around him in the rear of the battle ground. He made personal inquiry
after each of the wounded, and visited a number of them on that
evening and the following days, doing for them all that was possible.

The winter which followed made him an invalid with a disease whose
seeds had been laid in the Utah campaign. But, as he was reluctant to
leave the regiment, he accompanied it in an ambulance on the long
marches down Virginia to Fredericksburg. With him, and sharing the
same ambulance, was Colonel Griffin Stedman, the heroic commander of
the Eleventh Connecticut, still lame from Antietam wounds. They became
firm friends, and not unfrequently in those cold evenings the
ambulance would harbor a merry party, which, by the light of a
hospital lantern, and in the sight of the surrounding camp fires,
would speed the long hours by merry conversation. Major Converse,
Adjutant Barnum, (both fallen) and Dr. Mayer would bear them company.

The greater part of that winter the Colonel remained with the
regiment, but was finally forced to take sick leave. He returned to it
in the summer at Portsmouth, Va., and held command during the siege of
Suffolk, and the charge on Longstreet's army. Then he conducted it to
North Carolina, where he remained in command of a brigade, until at
Plymouth, he was taken prisoner with the regiment and all the other
troops that garrisoned this surprised out-post.

After the war Colonel Beach was for some time in command of a solitary
fort near Washington. He was soon after stationed at Washington, and
then at Fort McHenry. His old trouble having reappeared with more than
its former violence and persistency, he was placed on the retired
list, and endeavored to regain his health, but with only temporary
success. He died at New York, in the New York hotel, on Wednesday
evening, February 5th, 1873.

Colonel Beach was a gentleman of very handsome appearance and strong
masculinity of deportment. He was widely and well read, and as
thoroughly acquainted with the progress of modern philosophy and
science as with the prominent poets and writers of _belles lettres_ of
all ages. He had an elegant yet terse method of expression, and a
flashing quality of wit. But no man was of kinder heart, and in the
regular army his good nature had become proverbial. In his first
connection with the Sixteenth Connecticut Regiment under unfortunate
circumstances, many misunderstandings between him and the men gained
ground.