"To Follow to the Battlefield, The Banner of our Land."

"We parted with a cheerful smile,

When last I pressed her hand,

To follow to the battlefield

The Banner of our land."  

 ~Silas I. Shearer, 1865   

In honor of my great, great grandfather Silas I. Shearer, who served in the Civil War as a Union Soldier, Company K 23 Reg't Infantry, Iowa Volunteers.  Enlisted in August 1862 at the age of 24.  Discharged as a Sergeant in late 1865.  Born in 1838, he was a farmer, prior to the war, and after continued his farming, was on Board of Supervisors, Postmaster, Justice of the Peace, and father of eleven children.  My great great-grandmother Elizabeth died in February, 2014, and it is said that Silas said that he would not live more than one year alone without his wife.  He died in March, 1915 at the age of 77.  

Silas wrote this for his wife, by candle light, in one of his many letters home to Elizabeth:

"We parted with a cheerful smile,

When last I pressed her hand,

To follow to the battlefield

The Banner of our land.

Her glowing glance in memory

unceasingly will burn,

For well I know she will bestow

The same when I return."

"When gazing at the glimmering stars,

And resting on the ground,

While soldiers, wearied by the March,

Are slumbering around,

How oft, to hold that little hand,

And hear her vows I yearn,

For well I know she will bestow

The Same when I return."

~Silas I. Shearer, Iowa Soldier

 ~Linda Pendleton

Copyright by Linda Pendleton.