A bipartisan bill headed to the U.S. House of Representatives could bring long-overdue recognition to a Tri-State hero.
The Senate unanimously passed the Mark Our Place Act this week, sponsored by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown with Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana.
The bill would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a headstone, marker, or medallion for all Medal of Honor recipients, regardless of their dates of service. Currently only those who served after 1917 are allowed.
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The move would mean Powhaten Beaty will finally get the recognition he earned.
Beaty was born enslaved in Virginia. He had won his freedom by the Civil War and served as a first sergeant in the 5th U.S. Colored Troops. For his bravery during the war, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
He's buried in Covedale's Union Baptist Cemetery, where there's a state historical marker, but not a federal medallion honoring his service.
Beaty was brought to Cincinnati as a youth to serve an apprenticeship. It was in in 1861, in Cincinnati, that he became a free man.
When the city of Cincinnati was threatened in Sept. 1862 by a column of Confederate soldiers marching from Richmond, Ky., toward the city, Beaty became a member of the famous Black Brigade, which played a key role in safeguarding Cincinnati by building defenses around the city.
Later, with the 5th U.S. Colored Troops, he fought for the Union in Maryland and Virginia.
On Sept. 29, 1864, at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm in Virginia, Beaty showed extraordinary bravery as an enlisted man put in the position of leading his unit after all the officers were killed.
In April 1865, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest award a soldier can earn.
He returned to Cincinnati after the war and spent much of the rest of his life as an professional actor. Beaty died in Cincinnati in December 1916 at the age of 79.
