Thaddeus Patton Siler

In 1860 he was a prosperous 37 year old merchant with 2 slaves at Franklin in Macon County, NC. He enrolled as Captain of Company K, First North Carolina Cavalry on 16 May 1861.

On 13 September 1862

In the engagements at the gap in the Catoctin and near Middletown the Jeff. Davis Legion and First North Carolina Cavalry, respectively under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Martin and Colonel [L. S.] Baker, conducted themselves with the utmost gallantry, and sustained a hot fire of artillery and musketry without flinching or confusion in the ranks. Captain [T. P.] Siler, a gallant officer of the First North Carolina Cavalry, had his leg broken [by a gunshot] during the engagement.

He was paroled at Boonsboro on 18 October and was held at Fort McHenry in Baltimore until sent to Fortress Monroe, VA on 8 December 1862 for exchange. He was admitted to a hospital in Petersburg, VA on 10 December and sent home on furlough on 18 December for 40 days.

While a prisoner, on 11 October, he had been elected Major of the 7th North Carolina Cavalry Battalion, which was consolidated with the 5th Cavalry Battalion to form the 6th North Carolina Cavalry (66th, later 65th Regiment State Troops) in September 1863. He was issued a commission as Major of the Battalion in October 1863 (to date from October 1862), but it's not clear that he ever actually rejoined the army after Sharpsburg.

In a March 1864 letter from his home in Franklin, NC to the Secretary of War requesting assignment of Company A, 6th Cavalry to Macon County, NC, he signed himself Colonel of the "6th Regt. N.C.S.T." - perhaps an attempt to get his brother Julius' company home.

By 1870 he was a merchant in Franklin, Macon County, NC and in 1880 was a miner there.

His service basics from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. The quote above from Major General J.E.B. Stuart's after-action report. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1880.

He married Caroline E Trotter (1827-) in September 1848 and they had 6 children.

His brother Jesse (b. 1838) was also in Company K of the First NC Cavalry, and was killed at Gaines' Cross Roads, VA in November 1862; brother Julius (1825-1866) was Captain of Company A of the 7th Cavalry Battalion, later E of the 6th Cavalry Regiment.

08/31/1823; Franklin, NC

1894; Franklin, NC