Edgar Shivers was born around 1815 in Gloucester County, New Jersey, to John Shivers. He eventually moved to Missouri. He enlisted in the army during the Mexican-American War, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 1st Missouri Light Artillery in May 1847. He suffered a “Lance Wound” in his left shoulder on August 6, 1847, and he mustered out on July 1, 1848.
He moved to Illinois after the war, but his injury apparently continued to affect his health. In August 1860, he wrote that he could “walk tolerable well without the use of a cane on a good road [and] I can use my hand some.” He eventually settled in Havana, Illinois. On December 6, 1877, he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio. He died there of “Exhaustion from paralysis” on September 18, 1886.