John, thank you so much for your response to my inquiry. Your information is certainly intriguing. I received info just today from someone researching Hiram's wife who indicated that her records show him dying in 1864 or 1865.She didn't have any specifics on how or where he died. Your information would certainly fit with that.
Hiram's father was Dr. Henry Charles L Krause from either Hamelin or harlem Germany. The family came to North Carolina sometime before 1837. Dr. Krause was High German and spoke seven languages, so this was an educated family. Hiram was born about 1825 in Germany. Dr. Krause died in 1848. His wife and the younger children then left N.C. and moved to Arkansas and Mo.The older sons stayed here in N.C. My thinking was that Hiram perhaps went west to his family there if he was a Union supporter and joined up there. It wasn't a good thing to be a Unionist here in the North Carolina Mountains, though we did have some, such as, notably, Keith and Malinda Blalock.Hiram's wife and children defintely stayed here, if indeed Hiram did leave. He simply vanishes after 1860. I can't find him on any records after that year.That is what led me to speculate that he perhaps died in the war. His younger brother Pinkney Wilson Krause was in the Confederate Army in Mo. Pinkney seems to have died in an army prison in Rolla,Mo. I don't know what they mean by "died in an army prison" Does this mean as a POW in a Union prison, or for some offense in the Confederate army? I just don't know. He was one of the children who left here with his Mother. There were North Carolinans who left their families behind and joined the Union Army sort of "on the sly." There were some who joined the Confederate Army, deserted, then joined the Union after they were far enough away so that their "switch" wouldn't endanger their families here. I thought that maybe Hiram may have done this. The family calls him the " missing Krause." Again, thank you so much for your research into this subject for me.