Open main menu
Open main menu
D.R. Silver
(1832 - 1911)
Home State: North Carolina
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
In 1860 he was a 28 year old farmer in Yancey County, NC. He enlisted in Alamance County and mustered as a Private in Company E, 6th North Carolina Infantry on 15 June 1861. He was wounded in action at Seven Pines, VA on 31 May 1862 and slightly in the leg at Malvern Hill, VA on 1 July.
On the Campaign
He was wounded again, in action on 17 September 1862 at Sharpsburg.
The rest of the War
He was back with his company by November and was discharged on 15 August 1863 to accept the commission (dated 27 July) of 2nd Lieutenant of Company K of the newly formed 58th North Carolina Infantry. By February 1864 he was First Lieutenant, and was detached for duty in Mitchell County, NC to 8 March (or 5 April) 1864. He was appointed Captain on 28 September 1864 after his brother Samuel Marion Silver was promoted from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment. He was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital in West Point, MS on 15 January 1865, and was in CS General Hospital #11 in Charlotte, NC with chronic hepatitis on 9 April with no later military record.
After the War
By 1880 and to at least 1910 he was a farmer at Snow Creek in Mitchell County.
References & notes
His service information from the Roster 1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3; one document in the file has him as Ralph Silver. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 and 1880-1910; his birth also seen in Yancey and Mitchell Counties. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a photograph of unknown provenance. Thanks to great-great-grandson Terrence Smith for the pointer to his ancestor Captain Silver.
He married Elizabeth J Baker (1834-c. 1865) in November 1856 and they had 4 children. He married again, Sarah Elizabeth "Sally" Ledford (1843-1893) in January 1871 and they had 6 more children. He married for the third time, the widow Rosannah Wilson Gouge (1838-1933) in June 1895.
His brother Edmund Drury Silver was First Sergeant of Company K of the 58th Regiment.
Birth
02/21/1832; Burke County, NC
Death
08/26/1911; Yancey County, NC; burial in Kona Baptist Church Cemetery, Kona, NC
1 Moore, John Wheeler (compiler), and State of North Carolina, Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, 4 volumes, Raleigh: Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Publishers, 1882, Vol. 3, p. 647 [AotW citation 31251]
2 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 31252]