Oh, good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. Welcome to February, 1928. It is 1928, isn’t it? A bit unseasonable for February, wouldn’t you agree?

What time is it getting to be? I’ve got a meeting of the United Confederate Veterans to go to. I was just straightening up around here a bit before I go.

No, I’m not confused. I meant the Confederate Veterans. You see, I am the last surviving Madison County member of the Grand Army of the Republic, but our local camp was disbanded in 1912 once most of the members had passed on. I’ve been going to the meetings of my friends at the Egbert Jones Camp of the United Confederate Veterans since then. Tonight I am going to ask them to make me an "associate, contributing member." I sure hope they agree. Of course, if they do, I’ll have to start paying dues!

I’ll bet you’re wondering what a Yankee soldier is doing here in the first place – between the unknown Confederate soldiers just to the north and the old Union gravesite that used to be just south of here? Well, I still have a few minutes so let me tell you a little about how I wound up in Huntsville.

My name is Samuel Sweinhart. I was raised in Elkhart county in Indiana. I was 17 by the time the war started, working on my father’s farm. I still remember all the anger and excitement when we heard the news that the Confederates had forced the surrender of Fort Sumter. Soon everyone was talking about a war to save the Union and a war for abolition.

Me? I was all for adventure, excitement, and escape! I wanted to join the Army before the war was over. Of course, everyone said it would be a very short war, that would only last six months or so, just to teach those Rebs a lesson. I didn’t want to miss out on that, no sir!

I got my father’s permission and enlisted in the 9^th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment in Company C as a private on September 1, 1861. By the end of the month we were in West Virginia and faced our first test in battle at Green Briar there in late October. It sure didn’t take long for the excitement to start, I can tell you.

After West Virginia we marched and fought, marched some more and fought some more, all over Tennessee and Georgia. We saw action at Shiloh, Stone’s River, Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville. The Battle of Nashville in December 1864 turned out to be our last combat engagement. We were never able after that to catch up to John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee after he crossed the Tennessee River.

That chase brought us to camp in Huntsville during the winter of 1864 and 1865. We had about 20,000 men camped east of the courthouse, and not very far from here. It would have been much more pleasant if our officers hadn’t had us in constant company, battalion and regimental drills. We did lose five men to disease that winter, who were buried right in this cemetery.

We left Huntsville in March, 1865, for Knoxville and later for San Antonio, Texas, where the war ended for us on September 28, 1865.

I returned to my father’s farm and in 1868 married my childhood sweetheart, Alida Semolroth. I’m proud to say we’ve been married 60 years so far and had two fine children. My son Durward was born in 1872 and daughter May in 1873. Both of them, by the way, are Alabama natives. They’ve given us five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Back in 1869 I read in the Goshen, Indiana, paper that there was good land available in northern Alabama. As I remembered all the prime farm land around Huntsville during the war, we decided to make the move. We found some land we could rent to own, about 160 acres over in Limestone county near the Madison county line. Around the Pisgah area if you know where that is. We raised cotton and were successful enough that we were able to get the deed to the land in 1880. By 1888 though, farming was really getting to be hard work. We sold the land at a good profit and moved to Huntsville and opened the S. F. Sweinhart Sash, Door and Blind company on north Jefferson. We were there until I sold the business to E. R. Latta in 1894. I delivered the mail after that until 1922, although I officially retired from there in 1912.

I’ve been active in several organizations throughout the years here in Huntsville, including the Odd Fellows, the Grand Army of the Republic, and since 1912, with my former foes in the United Confederate Veterans.

My goodness, what time is it? I don’t want to be late for tonight’s meeting. I hate to rush off, but I’ve still got some straightening up to do. Alida will skin me alive if I leave here and the place is still a mess. Thank you for dropping by. Maybe I’ll see some of you at the meeting tonight.