Adelbert was born in Alabama to Mary Jane Blackford and Silas Jasper Gilliland. He enlisted at about age 13 or 14, and served as a drummer boy in the Missouri infantry, 23rd Regiment, Company E (but his pension was based on service in Company B!), during the War Between the States. After the war, he lived in Missouri (a nexus for Gilliland/Gilillands), where he eventually married and had his first child (1873). He married again in Chattanooga, and then again in California, where he practiced medicine. Edwin's mom is listed on his posting as Clara Austin (he was born in 1873, in Missouri), and he lived out his life in Tennessee, where he fathered a dynasty of Edwins, the most recent being EA Gilliland the fifth. In Chattanooga, Adelbert married Susie M. Fisher on 1Sept1875. [Google "genforum," genealogy.com] Edwin was a toddler, so Susie may have raised him and any siblings, probably in Chattanooga and/or Nashville. On 23Dec1907, in Red Bluff, Tehama County, California, Adelbert married Flora Elizabeth Hall. [LDS Batch #M526041, call #1305538] He practiced medicine in the town of Cottonwood, California until his death in 1922. At the time of his death, Adelbert was 72.

Genforum gives Adelbert's middle name as "Blackwell." His son Edwin's death certificate gives it as "Blackford." I have also seen "Blackwood." I am informed by another Gilliland researcher that Blackford is correct, his mother Mary Jane's maiden name. She also informs me that his father was Silas Jasper Gilliland. Edwin Adelbert was his first known child. Edwin's half-brother James Robert Gilliland is said to have travelled to California with Adelbert at age 14 years. I don't yet know what year they moved. James's mother was Nancy J Witcher, so that brings the total to 4, if all were married.