1862 , Missouri, USA

John Marion BEESLEY (1847 - 1901) The Bugler Boy of the 11th Missouri Calvary

One of the prominent farmers.-and stockmen of Summit Township was the late John Beesley. a native of Montgomery county, Indiana, born in 1847. He came with his parents to Missouri in 1855. and shortly afterwards located in Alba, Iowa, where his father died in 1861. In the spring of 1862, though but fifteen years of age, Mr. Beesley enlisted in the eleventh Missouri Calvary. He was not old enough to enlist for active service, so he entered the ranks as a bugler, and was known to his comrades as the "bugler boy."

He carried a saber, gun and revolvers and was chief bugler of the regiment until 1865, when he was mustered out at New Orleans. Mr. Beesley was wounded in the left hand, his horse was killed under him, and he was captured and paroled five days later. His hand was not dressed until he returned to the ranks at Duvall's Bluff. Arkansas. Mr. Beesley experienced many close calls and carried eleven bullet scars on his person (none of which caused serious wounds) and had four horses shot from under him. He was under the command of General Steele. When he applied for his pension in i8Si, Doctor Slade, the doctor who dressed his hand, wanted to know, "if he was the little boy whose hand lie had dressed.""

From: Hollibaugh, E. F. 1903. Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas: biographies of representative citizens. Illustrated with portraits of prominent people, cuts of homes, stock, etc. Logansport, Ind: Wilson, Humphrey & Co. pg 711