Clay Beauford
Clay Beauford was an American army officer, scout and frontiersman. An exConfederate soldier in his youth, he later enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with the 5th U.S. Cavalry during the Indian Wars against the Plains Indians from 1869 to 1873. He acted as a guide for Lieutenant Colonel George Crook in his winter campaign against the Apaches and received the Medal of Honor for his conduct.
Beauford was born Welford Chapman Bridwell in Washington County, Maryland on September 27, 1846, and later moved with his family to neighboring Virginia. At age 14, upon the start of the American Civil War, he ran away from home to join the Confederate Army. He enlisted under an alias, Clay Beauford, partly because of his age and to avoid being brought back home by his father. Beauford initially spent the first year of the war as a drummer boy with General Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia, however, he became a regular infantryman within a year. In 1863, he saw action at Battle of Gettysburg and was among the 4,500 men who took part in Picketts Charge. He was wounded in at least three other engagements before the end of the war a gunshot wound to his kneecap, a second to his left hand, and a third which penetrated near the stomach.
Source: Wikipedia