James Chaplin Beecher  James Chaplin Beecher, (January 8, 1828 – August 25, 1886), was an American Congregationalist minister and Colonel for the Union Army during the American Civil War. He came from the Beecher family, a prominent 19th century American religious family. James Chaplin Beecher was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and the youngest child of Lyman Beecher and Harriet Porter Beecher. Lyman was a Presbyterian minister who became best known as a revivalist and social reformer in the years before the American Civil War. His noted half-siblings include; Harriet Beecher Stowe, famed abolitionist and author of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Catharine Beecher, noted educator and author, Henry Ward Beecher, a famous preacher and abolitionist, and Charles Beecher and Edward Beecher. His sister, Isabella Beecher Hooker, was a leader and activist in the American Suffragists movement, and his brother, Thomas K. Beecher, was a preacher and educator. James was educated at Lane Theological Seminary in Walnut Hills, within Cincinnati, Ohio, of which his father was president. He entered Dartmouth College and graduated in 1848. James served for five years as ship's officer in the East India trade. After a couple of years serving a coaster which traded along the eastern U.S. coast, James took up the study of theology at Andover Theological Seminary. During his time at Andover, James married Anne Morse, a widow with a young daughter. In May, 1856, James was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church. Soon after his ordination, James and Anne left for China to be missionaries in Canton and Hong Kong. In 1859, Anne Beecher returned to America for health reasons. During a correspondence with Isabella Beecher Hooker, James admitted to his sister that Anne was suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. Anne went to Gleason’s sanitarium in Elmira, New York for their water cure treatment before she was committed to an asylum in June 1860. James remained in China until the outbreak of the Civil War. Upon returning home, James quickly enlisted in the army. The "Beecher's Bibles," and "Beecher's Pets," nicknames of the 1st Long Island Regiment (later the 67th New York Infantry), would be Beecher’s first assignment as chaplain.