Swanson Hardin Sanders

Son of a clergyman, in 1860 he was an 18 year old farm hand living with his parents and 6 siblings near Hartwell in Hart County, GA. He enlisted on 13 July 1861 and mustered as 2nd Corporal of Company C, 16th Georgia Infantry.

He was wounded in the side in action on 14 September 1862 at Crampton's Gap, but was at Sharpsburg on 17 September with his brother James, who was killed there.

He was wounded four more times: in the foot at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December 1862; in the shoulder at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863; in the elbow at the Wilderness, VA on 6 May 1864; and, finally, was wounded and captured at Deep Bottom, VA on 16 August 1864. He was released from the prison at Elmira, NY on 19 June 1865.

In 1870 he was again a farm worker living with his parents and 4 siblings on their farm at Hartwell, GA but by 1880 and to at least 1900 farmed his own place in Hart County, GA. He had retired there by 1910.

His service from Henderson.1 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave; there is a modern governemnt marker near his original stone at Mount Hebron which has his name as Swanson Homer Sanders. His picture from a c. 1862 photograph of 3 of the 4 Sanders brothers who served in Company C, of unknown provenance, shared on the Georgia Confederate Images Facebook page (and other locations online); thanks to Greyson Beardsley for the pointer to that.

He married Elizabeth Rebecca Bailey (1842-1911) about 1870 and they had 5 children.

7/12/1841; Elbert County, GA

11/7/1921; Hart County, GA; burial in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Hartwell, Hart County, GA