Lloyd J. Beall

Lloyd James Beall (October 19, 1808 – November 10, 1887) was a United States Army officer and paymaster. During the American Civil War, he served as a colonel and as Commandant of the Confederate States Marine Corps. He was the only man to command the Confederate marines throughout the conflict.

Early life and career
He was born at Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of Lloyd Beall and Elizabeth Waugh Jones, who were Marylanders. Beall was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1830. He also attended the Cavalry School of Saumur, France, from 1840 to 1842, to learn the French Army's system of Dragoon exercise.

In 1844, Beall was promoted to major in the U.S. Army. He served in the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars and in the Mexican-American War.

He was a U.S. Army paymaster stationed at St. Louis, Missouri, when the Civil War began.

Civil War service
Siding with the Confederate States of America, Beall tendered his resignation and headed south. Beall was appointed a colonel in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States. On May 23, 1861, the Secretary of the Confederate States Navy, Stephen Mallory, appointed Beall as Colonel Commandant of the Confederate States Marine Corps, the only person to hold that position, and Beall served in that capacity throughout the war.

He married Frances Hayne (ca. 1820-?), daughter of South Carolina Senator Arthur P. Hayne.

As an administrator during the war, Beall's military knowledge and experience remained an untapped resource. He worked hard to have the Confederate Marine Corps receive the personnel, supplies and other benefits accorded to other branches of the military. The training of officers and enlisted Marines took place at the Marines' Barrack's Camp Beall, just a short distance south of Richmond, Virginia, at Drewry’s Bluff overlooking the James River. By the end of the war, he had succeeded in helping improve the resources available to the Marine Corps and established a separate Marine training camp in Charleston, South Carolina; several permanent stations on the Mississippi River and Atlantic Seaboard.

Thanks, in part, to Beall's efforts, the Confederate Marines gained a reputation for distinguished combat service, on the sea and land.

Postbellum career
After the Civil War, Beall lived in Richmond, Virginia, and kept most of the Confederate States Marine Corps records at his home. Much of this history, along with Beall's personal history, was destroyed in a fire.

Lloyd J. Beall died at age 79 in Richmond. He is interred in the city's Hollywood Cemetery.