John Colt Beaumont

Background

John Beaumont was born on August 27, 1821, at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, of New England stock, third of the ten children of Andrew and Julia (Colt) Beaumont.

Career

Through the influence of his father, who was a member of Congress (1833 - 1837) and a friend of President Jackson, John secured an appointment as midshipman, March 1, 1838. Two years later he sailed in the Constellation on a long cruise to the East Indies and around the world. In the Mexican War he served on the Ohio at the fall of Vera Cruz, and later in the Pacific. Sea service was varied by tours of duty at the Naval Observatory, Washington, in 1848 and 1852-1854. As a passed midshipman (promoted May 20, 1844) he visited Mediterranean ports on the Independence, 1849-52; and as a lieutenant (promoted August 29, 1852) he was in the Hartford in the East Indies at the opening of the Civil War.

His war service was entirely as a ship commander on the Virginia rivers and Atlantic coast. He was in the gunboat Aroostook in attacks on Confederate batteries in the James River and at Fort Darling in May 1862, and in the Sebago, in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1862-1863. Transferred to the monitor Nantucket, he took a leading part in the capture of Fort Wagner in July 1863, and was engaged in other attacks on the defenses of Charleston. In the first bombardment of Fort Fisher, December 24-25, 1864, he declined to withdraw, though the boiler of his ship, the Mackinaw, was pierced by a shell and ten of his crew were wounded. In the Mackinaw he was also in the second attack on Fort Fisher, and in subsequent operations on the Cape Fear River.

Of a jovial, social disposition, with a host of friends, and with a reputation as a skilful officer experienced in ironclads, Beaumont was selected to command the new monitor Miantonomoh, in the squadron which took Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox to Russia in the summer of 1866 to express American appreciation of Russia's friendly attitude during the war. The first monitor to cross the Atlantic, the Miantonomoh was a "show ship, " visited by thousands during her tour of the chief ports from Kronstadt to Lisbon. In July 1867, Beaumont was promoted to captain, but complaints of no very serious nature regarding the reception of visitors on the Miantonomoh led to his temporary retirement. He was restored to the active list by Act of Congress, June 10, 1872; was chief signal officer, 1874-1879; and was commandant of the Portsmouth Navy Yard at the time of his retirement as rear admiral, February 3, 1882. He died of heart disease at Durham, New Hampshire, and was buried in the National Cemetery at Arlington.

Achievements

• During the Civil War John Beaumont participated in attacks on Confederate batteries in the James River and at Fort Darling (1862), the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (1862-1863); the capture of Fort Wagner (July 1863); attacks on the defenses of Charleston; the first bombardment of Fort Fisher; operations on the Cape Fear River, etc.

Connections

John Beaumont was twice married: on October 27, 1852, to Fanny Dorrance, who died in 1855; and again, in 1874 to Fannie S. King of Washington, D. C.

Father:

Andrew Beaumont

Mother:

Julia (Colt) Beaumont

Sister:

Sarah (Beaumont) Leuffer

Sister:

Julia A. (Beaumont) Gloninger

Sister:

Eleanor Bowman Beaumont

Sister:

Elizabeth (Beaumont) Collings

Wife:

Frances Sayer (King) Beaumont

Wife:

Fanny (Dorrance) Beaumont

Son:

Daniel Ammen Beaumont

Son:

John Colt Beaumont

Brother:

William Henry Beaumont

Brother:

Hortense Beaumont

Brother:

Eugene Beauharnais Beaumont