Beatty, John, 1828-1914

Beatty was born near Sandusky, Ohio. He entered the banking business in Morrow County. Presidential elector for Lincoln/Hamlin in 1860.

When the Civil War started Beatty volunteered as a private in the 3rd Ohio Infantry, serving in western Virginia. By 1863, he was commissioned as a brigadier general following his distinguished service in the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, and the Tullahoma Campaign. He took command of a brigade of infantry and led it through the rest of the war. Beatty participated in the Tullahoma Campaign, the Battle of Chickamauga, and the successful Union attack on Missionary Ridge during the Chattanooga Campaign. He resigned his commission in January 1864 and re-entered the banking business.

Following the war, he represented Ohio in the U.S. Congress from 1868 to 1873.

Presidential elector in 1884 for Blaine/Logan.

A 1909 biographer wrote that Beatty "is the sole survivor of the electoral college of Ohio, which cast its vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and as far as known, the only surviving elector who cast a vote for President Lincoln when he was chosen to his first term almost a half century ago."

Beatty was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Sandusky.

Beatty wrote The citizen-soldier, or, Memoirs of a volunteer, Cincinnati : Wilstach, Baldwin, 1879. The book has been reprinted more than once.

Prior to the Civil War, John Beatty was a banker. Yet like many others, North & South, swiftly demonstrated a capacity for war.

— Dave Powell