William H. Beal was born in 1836 in New York. His family moved to Ohio, where William first enlisted in Company H of the 14th Ohio Infantry as a private for a three month term from April 22 or 25 to August 13, 1861, when the unit mustered out. He then enlisted on July 25, 1862 as a 2nd Lt. in Company B of the 111th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and later, moving to Company A of that unit, was promoted to a 1st Lt., and then a Captain in 1863. The 111th saw much action in the Atlanta campaign, the Battle of Franklin, and in Tennessee. About 2/3's of the regiment's more than 1,000 soldiers were killed in action, discharged on disability, or died as a result of wounds or disease. Beal mustered out with his company in June of 1865, in Salibury, N.C. His commanding officer, Isaac R. Sherwood, would later become Ohio Secretary of State and also serve in Congress. Beal praised Sherwood in a letter to the editor of the National Tribune, the GAR newspaper, in its June 5, 1884, issue. Beal was a carpenter by trade. Sometime between 1872 and 1876, William and his wife, Maria (h), and their family moved from northern Ohio to Michigan. William and his wife moved to Chicago prior to 1894. The 1900 census lists his occupation as a lamplighter. Apparently they were living in Burnham, Illinois, where Maria died in 1910. Health issues led to William's admission to the National Soldiers Home in Danville, Illinois in 1917. W.H. Beal's death certificate shows he died at Illinois Central Hospital, although his obituary in the Lake County Times on May 15, 1918, says he died at his home in Hegewisch, where the funeral was to take place in the Methodist Church. Beal was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Hammond, as was his wife eight years earlier.

Research provided by Linda Herrick Swisher, public information coordinator, Hammond Public Library.