The bench displayed in the museum is well over a hundred years old.
Hartselle's survivors of the Civil war rested together here upon their return home from battle.
Most of them were members of Camp Friendship number 383 of the United Confederate veterans. The group had dwindled down to five in the year 1932 and these five were around ninety years old. They each had their own designated place on the bench. These places are now held by memorial plaques.
The bench was situated on Main street, and the old soldiers would come together here every day and talk to each other and to the town's people about the Civil War battles, current politics of the day, smoke their pipes or whittle.
To show there were no hard feelings remaining with the Yankees, the old Rebels painted the bench red, white and blue, as it remains today.
BACK
