Welcome to
Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery Park
Originally from South Carolina, William Leake Beach first made his way out west when he was a teenager to pursue California's Gold Rush of the 1840s. He later enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of California Calvary Volunteers, a unit which despite never experiencing any of the Civil War's battles on the East Coast, was considered part of the Union Army. After the conclusion of his military service, Beach eventually settled in Seattle, where he died at the age of 72 in 1904.
During his time in the California Calvary, Beach was a participant in one of the darkest moments in American history; the Bear River Massacre, which resulted in the death of an estimated nearly 400 Shoshone people. It is remembered as the most deadly massacre of Indigenous people in the United States, and Beach's harrowing personal account of his experiences at Bear River paints a grim picture of this horrific event.
Beach was witness to the violence of westward expansion, a period in American history that is often overshadowed by the Civil War that was simultaneously occurring on the other side of the nation.
Continue reading below to hear about some of Beach's experiences in the California Calvary, and a first hand account of how the brutality of westward expansion affected Indigenous people across the then growing United States.
The Battle of Bear River by Edmond J. Fitzgerald, painted on a wall in the Preston, Idaho Post Office.
Photo by Jimmy Emerson, https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/indians-at-the-post-office-murals-conflict/the-battle-of-bear-river.
The Indian Wars
During the American Civil War, the United States was using their military for more than just fighting Confederates. Union troops in the western United States were tasked with continuing to target different groups of Native Americans, many of whom were actively resisting the United States' aggressive expansion towards the plains and the West Coast. These battles between American troops and Native Americans are referred to as the Indian Wars. The Indian Wars continued after the conclusion of the Civil War, concluding in 1890 with the Wounded Knee Massacre.
A depiction from The National Police Gazette of the death of Major Thomas Thornburgh at the Battle of Milk Creek in 1879, an infamous battle of the Indian Wars. American troops trespassed on the land of the Nuche (commonly known as the Utes), and fighting ensued, ending with a Nuche victory.
Image property of the Library of Congress.
Bear River Massacre
By January of 1863, the Shoshone people had had enough. American settlers had taken over their much of their land along what the Shoshone call the Boa Ogoi, or as it is commonly known, the Bear River, in what later became the state of Idaho. These settlements depleted many of the critical resources the Shoshone relied on to survive, and with no regard from American settlers for their struggles, they were running out of options. The Shoshone, starving and desperate, began to take food from settler camps. The United States military responded to these thefts with a brutal surprise attack on the Shoshone village on Bear River on the morning of January 29th, 1863.
The ensuing battle resulted in the deaths of an estimated 400-450 Shoshone people, a large majority of which were women and children. Union army losses only totaled 25 men.
Chief Sagwitch of the Northern Shoshone and his wife Beewoachee in 1880. They were both survivors of the Bear River Massacre.
Image property of the Church of Latter Day Saints Archives.
William L. Beach, at age 36, was a participant in this grisly massacre of the Shoshone people. The diary entries he wrote and the map he drew while recovering from his injuries ("I received a severe injury through my coat," Beach said), and frostbite from the massacre provide us with a rare, first person look into what it was like to be there on that dark day in 1863.
William Beach's hand drawn map of the battlefield at Bear River. His note in the top right corner reads: "View of Battle field on Bear River Washington Territory Battle fought January 29th 1863 between California Volunteers and Indians." In the bottom left you can see his signature circled.
Image from "The Bear River Massacre: New Historical Evidence," by Harold Schindler in Civil War Saints, edited by Kenneth Alford, page 299.
The California Volunteers arrived at Bear River at some point on January 27th, and attacked the Shoshone in the morning of January 29th. Bear River was icy on that day, creating a perilous escape route away from the California Volunteers attacking from the Northeast. Allegedly, many individuals, both Shoshone and California Volunteers, were afflicted with frostbite on that day, and the Volunteers took advantage of the difficulty of swimming through the frigid Bear River to shoot Shoshone who tried to escape across the river to the south.
This desperate attempt by the Shoshone to escape from and retaliate against the onslaught of the California Volunteers is described by Beach as such:
(Beach's misspellings and missing punctuation have been corrected for ease of reading)
"The Indians were soon routed from the head of the ravine and apparently anticipated a general stampede, but were frustrated in their attempt. Maj. McGeary sent a detachment of mounted cavalry down the River and cut off their retreat in that direction. Seeing that death was their doom, they made a desperate stand in the lower end of the Ravine where it appeared like rushing on to death to approach them, but the victory was not yet won. With a deafening yell, the infuriated Volunteers with one impulse made a rush down the steep banks into their very midst when the work of death commenced in real earnest. Midst the roar of guns and sharp report of pistols could be heard the cry for quarters but their was no quarters that day. Some [Shoshone] jumped into the river and were shot attempting to cross, some mounted their ponies and attempted to run the gauntlet in different directions but were shot on the wing, while others ran down the River (on a narrow strip of ice that gifted the shores) to a small island and a thicket of willows below, where they found a very unwelcome reception by a few of the boys who were waiting the approach of stragglers."
-William L. Beach, 1863
From "The Bear River Massacre: New Historical Evidence," by Harold Schindler,
in Civil War Saints, edited by Kenneth Alford, page 299.
.png)
View of Bear River from the east. The California Volunteers charged towards the Shoshone from where the building stands in this photo.
Image property of the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement.
Beach's is one of very few surviving direct witness accounts of what happened at Bear River. It is striking to hear the brutality of this massacre in his own words. His experiences highlight the violence experienced by Indigenous people at the hands of the United States' push westward. Additionally, Beach's experiences are an unfortunate but revealing glimpse into how Indigenous people were viewed by many Americans at this time. Battles like this one were simply considered essential military operations necessary to maintain peace for white settlers and ensure the expansion of the United States. From where we stand in history today, the brutality of this mindset is clear, but it is important to bear witness to the way this kind of thinking manifests violence.
William Beach (middle row, second from right) and his family in Seattle in 1894.
Image from "The Bear River Massacre: New Historical Evidence," by Harold Schindler in Civil War Saints, edited by Kenneth Alford, page 304.
Allegedly, William Beach's family members remembered that he was was deeply haunted by what he took part in at Bear River, and it was a topic he was quite private about. It appears that after the conclusion of his military service, Beach moved his family out to Seattle, where he was a farmer. He died in 1932 of heart and kidney failure.