Silas S. Perry

Silas S. Perry was born in 1840.

Silas stood 5’11” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was a 21-year-old mechanic probably living in Shiawassee County or Ovid, Clinton County, Michigan, when he enlisted in Company G on May 26, 1861. (He is not found in the 1905 Third Michigan Regimental history, but he is found in the Regimental history for the First Michigan Cavalry.)

He was left sick in Grand Rapids when the Regiment departed for Washington on June 13, 1861, and was subsequently “discharged” on August 21, 1861.

He was transferred from the Third Michigan infantry by authority of Lieutenant Colonel E. Backus, the United States Army mustering officer, as a Private to Company D, First Michigan Cavalry (“Broadhead’s” cavalry) on August 21, 1861 at Ovid, Clinton County, and was mustered on September 7 while the regiment was being organized at Detroit.The regiment left Michigan for Washington on September 29 and was subsequently attached to the Cavalry Brigade, Army of the Potomac to December of 1861.

Silas reenlisted on January 27, 1864, at Washington, DC, crediting and listing Ovid as his place of residence, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough, possibly in Michigan, in February of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of March. The regiment participated in the actions around Appomattox Court House and in the surrender of Lee in April of 1865, and in the Grand Review in Washington on May 23. The regiment was then moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where it participated in the Powder River expedition and operations against the Indians in the District of the Plains and Dakota through the fall of 1865. Silas, however, was listed as absent sick at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from June 24, 1865, to September, and possibly still absent sick when he was transferred to Company G on November 17, 1865.

It appears that he may have returned to Michigan to recover his health. In any case, he was listed absent sick through February of 1866, and honorably discharged on March 10, 1866, at Detroit.

By 1881 Silas had moved to Texas where he applied for and received a pension (no. 355946).

Silas died on December 21, 1929 at Fort Worth, Texas, and was presumably buried there.