Col. Benjamin Lloyd Beall, (USA)

Benjamin Lloyd Beall, United States Army officer, was born in 1801 in Washington, D.C., the son of Lloyd and Elizabeth Waugh Jones Beall. Lloyd Beall was a career artillery officer in the United States Army. Benjamin was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point on January 1, 1814, but left on October 15, 1818, without graduating. He was elected captain of the Washington City Volunteers for service in the Seminole War on June 1, 1836, and was commissioned as a captain of the Second Dragoons in the regular United States Army on June 8, 1836. He was brevetted major on March 15, 1837, "for gallantry and successful service" against the Florida Indians.

In April 1846 he was stationed in San Antonio, where he was ordered to escort German immigrants to Fredericksburg and the Pedernales. He was promoted to major of the First Dragoons on February 16, 1847, and on March 16, 1848, received a second brevet, to lieutenant colonel, for his part in the battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales. After the Mexican War he was stationed in New Mexico until February 1848, when he took the First Dragoons into El Paso and established Fort Bliss. He remained at the new post for only a few months, however, and was responsible for no construction. He was promoted to the substantive grade of lieutenant colonel on March 3, 1855.

At the beginning of the Civil War, on May 3, 1861, he was promoted to colonel; he was then assigned to command the First Cavalry, formerly the First Dragoons, on August 3, 1861. Colonel Beal retired from active duty on February 15, 1862, and died in Maryland on August 16, 1863.