The Standard of Raleigh, Jan. 21, 1863
LIEUTENANT JESSE W. SILER, was born in Macon County, North
Carolina,
June 29, 1838, and died in the Battle at Gains' Cross Roads, November
7, 1862,
in the 25th year of his age. He was born of a devoutly pious mother,
raised by
indulgent parents, and surrounded with all the means of ease
and comfort.
But when the Northern Government made the first attempt to force
upon the South
the most flagrant violations of the Constitution and crush out the rights of a free people,
and for that purpose called upon North Carolina for her quota of seventy-five
thousand
troops, young SILER was amongst the first to volunteer,
and became
a member of the first company raised in his native county -- "The
Jeff Davis Guards." He remained at his post in this
Company (16th Regiment,
North Carolina Troops) through the memorable campaign in Western Virginia,
and until the reorganization of the Army, when he joined the Company
of
CAPT. THAD P. SILER (1st. N.C. Cavalry) and was elected Lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT SILER had been a student of both Emory and Henry College
and the University of North Carolina, and was a respectable scholar.
He was generous and liberal -- always ready to divide the last bisquit and
share the hardships and responsibilities of the camp with a fellow-soldier.
He was true to the South -- brave and unflinching in her defence, and while
skirmishing with the enemy at Gains' Cross
Roads and some distance in advance
of his squadron, he received the fatal shot. Seeing him fall, some of his men ran to
him, when he pointed significantly to the enemy, and without speaking,
died in a
few minutes.
Thus passed away a young man of fine
person, fine mind, generous impulses,
and in the early vigor of manhood -- a martyr to the cause of constitutional
rights
-- the liberties bequeathed to us by our noble ancestors -- a cause
that has for its ultimate perpetuation of the franchises
of the ballot-box and
the priceless blessings of civil liberty. C.D.S.
