My Genealogy Hound

Gen. Robert Glenn Shaver is a prominent lawyer of Nashville, Ark., and was born in Sullivan County, Tenn., April 18, 1831, the third of four children born to David and Martha (May) Shaver, who were born in North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively. The paternal grandfather was a native of Saxony, Germany, and came to the United States prior to the opening of the Revolutionary War, soon after his arrival marrying a lady from Alsace, France. At the opening of the above-mentioned war, he raised a company, and was killed at the battle of Gate's Depot, leaving, besides his widow, two children, the elder of whom was David Shaver. After a few years his mother died, and then he, with his younger brother, Michael, went to East Tennessee, and there made his home from 1802 to 1850, when he sold his property there and moved to Batesville, where he died in 1857. The ancestral name was originally spelled Schaeffer, but about 1826 David Shaver had it changed. The maternal grandfather was Dr. Samuel May, who was a member of the famous May family of England. He came to America at the close of the Revolutionary War, landed at Savannah, Ga., and purchased 200,000 acres of land from the State, for which he paid $10,000, this land being located where the city of Huntsville, Ala., is now situated. The State afterward refused to fulfill its part of the bargain, and Dr. May then moved to East Tennessee, where he soon married the only daughter of Gen. Ivan Shelby, and practiced his profession until his death, which occurred at quite an advanced age. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm near the Tennessee and Virginia line, and attended school at home, and in the Emery and Henry College, of the latter State, remaining in this institution from 1846 to 1850, at which time he came to Arkansas with his parents, and at once began the study of law, and soon after was admitted to the bar. In 1855 he moved to Lawrence County, where he made his home until the opening of the Rebellion. In May, 1861, he received an order from the authorities of Arkansas to raise a regiment, which he immediately proceeded to do, and his regiment, the Seventh, was the first one raised in the White River Valley. This was organized at Smithville, June 16, 1861, and Mr. Shaver was chosen colonel, and was ordered to Pillman’s Ferry, Ark., from there to Point Pleasant, thence on a steamboat to Columbus, Ky., and from there to Bowling Green. At the reorganization of the army, he was placed in charge of the Third Brigade of Dardee's division, and, retreating from Bowling Green, he brought up the rear to Nashville and Murfreesboro, where he was relieved of the command of the brigade, and his regiment was transferred to Hindman’s brigade, the First Arkansas. Hindman was afterward promoted, and Mr. Shaver was assigned to the command of his brigade, which he commanded at the battle of Shiloh, his brigade being the one to open the fight. During this bloody engagement he was slightly wounded, and had four horses killed under him. After this battle he retreated to Corinth, then to Tupelo, and from there he was ordered to the Trans Mississippi Department. He reached Little Rock on July 4, 1862, and was ordered to establish a camp at Pine Bluff, and near that place, at Camp Sulphur, where he remained until the following September, then went to Pocohontas to take charge of McBride's brigade. We next find him in Yellville, then in Fort Smith, where the battle of Prairie Grove was fought, and from there he went to Little Rock, thence to Louisiana in 1863, and after the fall of Vicksburg returned to Arkansas and camped at Arkadelphia. He was there detached for special duty in the White River Valley, and there remained until the following March, when he joined his brigade at Shreveport, La., and was elected colonel of two regiments. He led them in all the engagements of the Red River campaign, and his brigade opened the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry. He was assigned to the post at Camden, remaining there until March, 1865, when he was ordered to Texas. He surrendered at Shreveport, La., June 9, 1865. He went to his farm in Jackson County, but on account of trouble with Clayton's militia he was compelled to leave the country in 1869, and went to Honduras, Central America, where he made his home until 1873. He then returned to Arkansas, and soon after was appointed sheriff of the newly organized county of Howard, and held this office until the next general election, when he retired from office and began the practice of law, and is now one of the leading professional men of this section. He was married June 9, 1856, to Miss Adelaide Louise Ringgold, a daughter of Col. John Ringgold, who was one of the first settlers of Batesville, and a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1836. Mrs. Shaver died on October 19, 1889, having borne a family of eight children: Lucretia Shelby (wife of Col. P. B. Williams, a planter of Little River County), James David (the present member of the Legislature from Howard County), Martha May, Adelaide Ringgold. Robert G., Jr., Maud, Charles Edgar (who died at the age of one year), and Percy Noland (who died when two years of age).