The Mena weekly star., 1907-05-30
THE occasion of the unveiling ! of the Confederate monu- \ ,.ont at Ratesyille. Ark. was

of the Confederate monu
 4 ment at Batesville, Ark, wa
 ;r tbe nature of a reunion of olC
 confederate veterans, many of whom had served under General Robert G Shaver now living in Mena, during the Civil war.
 At that time the following sketcl # the life and war record of Genera Shaver was printed in the Batesvillt cuard which will be read with in terest by many readers of The Star General Shaver was born in Sul livan county, East Tennessee, within fourteen miles of the town of Bristol m the Virginia line, on the 18th o1 April, 1881, and has just passed hi: 76th birthday. In his boyhood he has stood in the state of Tennessee and killed squirrels in Virginia. His narents were sturdy Germans and tbe country was filled with others like them, and when the civil war came on. they all went into the Southern army.
 In 1850 the Shaver family, consist ing of father, mother, three brothers and a sister, removed to Arkansas and located at Bentonville. In 1855 the father bought property on Reed s Creek. Lawrance county, now Sharp, and settled there. Gen. T Shaver read law and was licensed to practice at Smithville before the war
 T Gen. Shaver was not an original k secessionist, but when the states # withdrew from the Union he went & heartily into her service. At Smith \ vile, on the 18th day of June, 1861, # he organized the Seventh Arkansas z Regiment and was elected its \ colonel. This regiment of infantry # was composed of two companies 4 from Independence county. two from \ Randolph and one each from Law q erance, Jackson, White, Izard, Full ton md Marion. The two Independ- ence county companies were Dyes & and Brightwell's. This regiment was & first dubbed the Ragged Seventh" l by the other troops in the army, but at the battle of Shiloh, on the 9th ot I April, 1862, when Gen. Shaver com manded the first Arkansas Brigade, the regiment distinguished itself so well that Gen. Hardee, the Division Commander, changed its name to the Bloody Seventh" by which name it was known during the balance of the war.
 # The assignment of Gen. Shaver to the command of the first Arkan- sas Brigade, on that occasion, placed Col. James Rutherford in command of the regiment and it was his charge during the memorable battle that gave the regiment its new title. It was the Seventh Arkansas that struck the first blow in the fight, before sunrise on that Sunday morning, and later made such a terrific charge on the Twenty fourth Missouri, Dutch regiment almost direct from Holland. In that battle every officer on Gen. Shaver's staff was either killed or wounded, tapt- c. A. Bridewell of Hope being tne last to fall. Gen. Shaver had Fhree horses killed from under him Fne first day and one the second, and on that second day was himself 70 desperately wounded that it was Fnought at first he was killed.
 On the 18th of June, 1862. Gen. enaver returned to Arkansas and in
 uly of that year organized the 38th
 arKansas Infantry, of which he was
 iected colonel, and during the bal
 'hce Of the war was actively engaged
 vest Of the Mississippi. In August,
 soz, he was sent to Pocahontas, and
 December participated in the pattle of Prairie Grove. The follow
 ng summer he took part in defence
 ' Little Rock, and covered the re-
 reat of the Confederate army when Fnat clty was evacuated in August.
 Later Gen. Shaver was sent north
 "hlte river, with train of pow
 e' and a number of officers, and
 gre he organized another force, -''er which he reported at Shreve-
 0r'' and there on the same day in
 'srch, ls64, was unanimously cleo
 colonel of both the 27th and 38th
 ss'nents, each acting without the
 'o"'edge of the other. The two
 s'ments were then consolidated by
 sh. smith, who had charge of the
 'ueuerate forces opposing the
 Os'ess of Gen. Banks. the Federal
 s'A'nander, up Red river. and par
 fiQ4fed ir tk. I..4 rS.