AUTHOR: Unknown
The oldest of three boys to serve for the South, Rinehardt Emanuel Beaver or “Manuel” as he was called, was born in Rowan County in 1837. Manuel was 2nd to enlist on January 25, 1862 in Salisbury in Co. B of the 42nd NC State Troops. He was originally assigned to Gibbs’ Prison Guard Battalion. On July 4, 1862 he transferred to Co. A of the 57th NC State Troops, where he was promoted to Full Musician on August 15, 1862.
While engaged at Fredericksburg, Uncle Manuel decided he was tired of just playing the fife, so in the midst of the battle he picked up a rifle and shot a man and when reloading, he was shot and sent to recover in Richmond until the Spring of ’63. After recovering and as he told many years later, his experience made him realize that he “was quite content to play the fife for the rest of the war!” He would be taken prisoner, like his two brothers, on September 22, 1864 at the Battle of Fisher’s Hill and sent to Point Lookout, MD where he would remain until June 23, 1865. He would return to his two brothers, who all together moved to Iredell County in 1866 and would remain until his death in 1922.