Seated view carte de viste of Beall in Confederate uniform. He wears a double-breasted frock with general’s collar insignia and sleeve braid. He also holds an officer’s kepi his hand. Image clear with very good contrast. Elaborate photographer’s backmark, J. Gurney & Son, New York. Additionally, in period ink is, “Regards of Wm. N. R. Beall, Bgr Genl; P.C.S.A., Arkansas.”

William Nelson Rector Beall (March 20, 1825 – July 25, 1883) was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is most noted for his supply efforts on behalf of Confederate prisoners of war.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Beall resigned his commission and was appointed as a captain of cavalry in the Confederate Army. Beall served in the Trans-Mississippi Department under General Earl Van Dorn early in the war and was appointed brigadier general in the spring of 1862. Beall was placed in command of the Confederate cavalry forces at Corinth, Mississippi. Beall then commanded a brigade of troops from Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. At the Siege of Port Hudson, the Confederate forces surrendered on July 9, 1863, and Beall was taken as a prisoner of war. He was imprisoned at Johnson's Island on Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio.

In 1864, Beall was appointed as a Confederate agent for the purpose of supplying Confederate prisoners of war and paroled for this purpose. He established an office in New York City and sold cotton allowed through the Union blockade of southern ports. The proceeds from these sales were used to purchase clothing and blankets for Confederate prisoners in northern prison camps. Due to questionable dealings, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton suspended Beall's parole and placed him in Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor as a prisoner of war until the cotton safely arrived from Mobile, Alabama. He was finally released from Federal custody on August 2, 1865. After the war, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri and became a general commission merchant.

Beall died on July 25, 1883, in McMinnville, Tennessee. He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.    [jet] [ph:L]

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