Daniel Beaver’s eldest child, he was born in Page County. At age 18, on June 1, 1861, he enlisted in Company H(Page Greys) of the 33rd Virginia Infantry. Part of the army of Northern Virginia. Fought under general Stonewall Jackson as part of the famed stonewall brigade. Fought in many major battles including First Bull Run, 2nd Bull Run, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. Fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, and was wounded on the morning of the third day, being shot in the thigh during the second charge of Culp's Hill. John was loaded in an ambulance wagon train and retreated with the army from Gettysburg. However on July 5th the Union Army captured the wagon train at South Mountain, at the Pennsylvania/Maryland border, and he was sent to a Union hospital in Frederick, Maryland. On August 7th he was transferred to the U.S. general hospital in Baltimore. On August 23, a year to the day after his younger brother died, he was paroled, and the next day was admitted to the Confederate States hospital in Petersburg Virginia. In September he was allowed to return home to his family to recover. By November, he recovered enough to return to his company and served through the end of the year. Shortly afterwards he was forced to return home, as his stepmother and 8 younger siblings were struggling to survive. His army service over, he managed to hold the family together until the end of the war.
It is interesting to note that after being captured and spending time in a Union hospital in Maryland, that he was allowed to return to the Confederacy, normally after recovering, a soldier would be sent to a prison camp. A story passed down through the family describes how John found a $10 gold piece on the Gettysburg battlefield the night before he was wounded. He was able to use that coin to purchase his freedom.
He married Virginia Graves in 1864. They had 10 children.