[2] At the start of the Civil War, Garber joined the 3rd Missouri Regiment on October 3, 1862.

[citation needed] He left the Midwest and moved to California where he engaged in livestock trading.

He settled in Webster County, Nebraska, and in 1872, he laid out the town site of Red Cloud.

Garber served as probate judge of Webster County, and in 1872 he was elected to the Nebraska House of Representatives.

Silas Garber died in Red Cloud, Nebraska, after a long illness.