AUTHOR: Unknown
Levi Adolphus Beaver was born in Rowan County in 1840, one of three brothers who would fight to defend the Southern Cause. Amazingly, all three returned home.
“Dolph,” as he was called by friends and family, enlisted as a Private in Company K of the 5th NC Regiment on August 8, 1862 in Statesville. He was immediately engaged in combat at South Mountain, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. In ’63, they would see battle at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and before capture in ’64 he would fight at The Wilderness. He was captured at Spotsylvania Courthouse May 12, 1864, 3 weeks before his brother Michael was captured at Cold Harbor.
Initially sent to Point Lookout, Maryland, he was transferred to Elmira, New York August 10, 1864 where he joined his younger brother Michael. As Michael would later tell it, he only survived the Hell that was Elmira because he had Dolph with him. Dolph would say the very same. Both were released June 12, 1865 and returned home to their Rowan County farm and a year later they permanently settled in Iredell County, where Dolph would died in 1931.
