Hiram Barrett Currie enlisted in Co. C (Quitman Southrons of Leake County), 6th Mississippi Infantry and was mustered into service at Grenada on 24 August 1861.

After suffering from typhoid and measles while at Bowling Green, Kentucky in early 1862 the regiment was assembled at Corinth, Mississippi with the army commanded by Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston. At the Battle of Shiloh on 6 April 1862 the 6th Mississippi lost 48 men killed in action during heavy assaults against the 57th and 75th Ohio. Among the dead was Hiram B. Currie, whose remains are probably interred in a mass grave near the spot where he fell.