Eugene B. Beaumont

Eugene Beauharnais Beaumont (August 2, 1837 – August 17, 1916) was a Union Army officer in the American Civil War and a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions at an engagement on the Harpeth River in Tennessee and at the Battle of Selma. After the Civil War he served in the Indian Wars of the western United States.

Early life Beaumont was born in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, the son of U.S. Representative Andrew Beaumont. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy from the city of Wilkes-Barre Ranking 32nd out of his class of 45 cadets, Beaumont was assigned as a second lieutenant to the 1st Cavalry Regiment.

Civil War service He trained soldiers in Washington, D.C., until June 1861, when he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Ambrose Burnside. With Burnside, he participated in the First Battle of Bull Run. In September he became aide-de-camp to General John Sedgwick and served with him in the Peninsula Campaign of early 1862 until falling ill with typhoid fever. After recuperating, he returned to duty in August 1862 and again worked as an aide-de-camp, this time to General-in-Chief of the Union Army, Henry Wager Halleck. Beaumont requested to be sent back to the field, and in May 1863 he rejoined General Sedgwick as a captain. He served with Sedgwick for just over a year and took part in a series of battles, including Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Raccoon Ford, Mine Run, and the Wilderness. Beaumont's other daughter, also from his first marriage, Hortense Darling Beaumont, married Charles Pinckney Elliott.

He retired on May 6, 1892, as a lieutenant colonel. Beaumont died in the early morning of August 17, 1916, at age 79, in Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania.