Samuel Nicholas Beard enlisted in Company G of the 13th Regiment, South Carolina Infantry. According to his Compiled Military Service Records he was captured at Cashtown, Pennslyvania on July 5, 1863 during the Gettysburg campaign. He was made a prisoner of War and like a few Confederates elected to join the Union ranks rather than to sit in prison. He enlisted in Company G of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry on October 5, 1863. The bulk of Company G of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry was made up of former Confederate prisoners of war. Private Samuel Nicholas Beard of Company G 1st Connecticut Cavalry then deserted that unit on February 11, 1864. Many members of Company G deserted from the ranks of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry. Somehow he remained in low profile until the end of the War now being wanted by both sides. He died in Mississippi in 1925. Some former members of Company G of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry would hide in the hills of Coshocton County Ohio after their desertion. However, it is not known if this was his place of hiding.