the neighborhood. On the 10th of March, 1862, being then eighteen years of age, he enlisted in Company E, Seventeenth Iowa Infantry, and was soon sent to the front, participating in many of the great battles and campaigns of the war. He was present at the battles of Iuka and Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg and the battles in the neighborhood of that city, being sent after the surrender of Vicksburg to east Tennessee, where he participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge. The regiment was then ordered to assist in the relief of Knoxville and later took part in the Atlanta campaign. Mr. Shearer was never in camp from March 1, 1863, until January 1, 1864, being almost constantly upon the move. At eleven o'clock at night in October, 1864, the regiment was sent to guard a bridge at Tilton, Hood's army being then in motion in that immediate vicinity. About daybreak the pickets began firing and part of the regiment was thrown forward to guard the picket post, the subject of this review being one of the number. By nine o'clock they were completely surrounded but continued to fight until their ammunition was exhausted and at four o'clock in the afternoon surrendered to General Stewart, commanding one of the corps of Hood's army. After being deprived of their arms the men were marched to Cahaba, Alabama, and after a short stop were sent to Andersonville prison, in which the subject of this review was incarcerated for six and one-half months. On the day of his capture he had nothing to eat and for three days afterward the only rations received by the men of the regiment was one ear of raw corn. In Andersonville he underwent great suffering but he survived the awful ordeal and after the surrender of General Lee was paroled April 28, 1865, at Lake City, Florida. He and his companions marched to Jacksonville, that state, and from that place returned home, being discharged at Davenport, June 1, 1865.
Mr. Shearer spent the remainder of the summer recuperating with his mother in Wapello county. As his education had been interfered with by the war, he attended school for three winters, working at various occupations during the summer months, and in 1868 came to Story county, locating soon afterward upon eighty acres in Collins township for which he had traded. Subsequently he purchased forty acres adjoining, upon which there was a farm residence, and here he lived until his removal to Collins in 1906. He became the owner of three hundred and sixty acres, forty acres of which he sold. He also owns one hundred and sixty acres in Kossuth county, Iowa. Since October 15, 1908, he has filled the office of postmaster at Collins.
In 1869 Mr. Shearer was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Shenkle, of Collins township, a daughter of Benjamin Shenkle, who located in that township in 1854 and was one of its most valued citizens. The following children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Shearer, namely : Anna Alice, now deceased, who married E. B. Weese and became the mother of one child, Florence, who was reared by Mr. and Mrs. Shearer and is now assistant postmaster of Collins ; Jennie, the wife of Elmer Bence, of Collins