Bryan,

This is off the subject, and I appologize for butting in this conversation.

I am not related, but in an attempt to get this Arkansas CSA soldier's name corrected in his widow's application, I phoned the Arkansas History Commission, and one of their employes pulled up Elizabeth's application. The majority of the time in the application, the surname is Bean, but in two instances, the name is Beard. His widow marked her name with an "X", which indicates she was illiterate, and someone made application for her. The commission will not change Pvt. Edmond Beard's surname if the majority of the time it's Bean in her application. Edmond Beard and Mary Elizabeth Pate were on the 1880 Little Rock, Pulaski Co., AR census, and she was still in Little Rock in 1900 as a widow. She died in 1914 in Montgomery Co., AR, and there's possibly a record of her last pension payment.

Source: Edward G. Gerdes Arkansas Civil War

Blocher’s Arkansas Battery
BEAN, Edmond
Private—No record of service in Blocher’s Battery; his widow Elizabeth applied for a Confederate pension from Pulaski county in 1901 (Pension #10238 approved August 27, 1901), claiming that her husband had served in the battery, 1862-65, and that he had died in 1884; see Edmond Beard.

BEARD, Edmond
Private—Enrolled in Confederate service at Little Rock, Arkansas, by Col. McRae, June 11, 1862; assigned to Blocher’s Battery after October 31, 1862; present, February 28, 1863; see Edmond Bean.

Beth Walton