The Sons of Union Veterans: My Story

On Tuesday, June 11, I became a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War!

I was inducted by Lieutenant Commander Edward Lea USN, Camp 2 in Houston, Texas. You can visit the site here.  The camp is named for Edward Lea, a Union naval officer who was killed during the Battle of Galveston in January 1863.

Thanks to my Aunt Barb, I learned about my ancestry and its roots in the Civil War. I am descended from Nicholas Almire, a Prussian immigrant who served in Company E of the 42nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry from 1864-65. He was drafted at age 29, and his first march was to Nashville, Tennessee. He was present at Goldsboro, North Carolina in April 1865. I don’t know if he saw action, but that was the site of the closing days of General William T. Sherman’s Union campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Private Almire was honorably discharged at Louisville, Kentucky on July 21, 1865. Since the government provided no transportation, Nicholas walked home to Monticello, Indiana, hiding by day and traveling by night to avoid hostile Kentuckians. When Nicholas returned home, his wife and son didn’t recognize him because he was so thin.

Nicholas and his wife, Catherine, had one son prior to Nicholas’s service. They had at least five more children after his service. Nicholas died on January 14, 1883 from a sore on his leg that wouldn’t heal, and vomiting due to a stomach ailment. He stated that his illnesses were caused by his service in the army.

Unfortunately, Catherine’s applications for a military pension were never approved. She cared for their children and Nicholas’s ailing mother by taking in others’ laundry. She died in poverty on February 12, 1892 at age 54. Her pension claim was labeled “abandoned” and closed.

The oldest son of Nicholas and Catherine, Jacob Henry Almire, was born on August 14, 1861. He married Louisa Grisez, and they had nine children. Their fifth child was Isabella Almire. In the early 20th century, Isabella married Leonard Swansborough; the name was later shortened to Swansbro. Leonard and Isabella had a child in 1924 named Leonard, Jr., who was my grandfather. He married Rosella Alessio, and their daughter Anita is my mother.

This my heritage, and I’m honored to be a new member of the Sons of Union Veterans.