Prattville Dragoons Executive Committee Approve Bust for National Museum and Sign for Historic Indian Hill Cemetery

In the recent meeting of the SCV Camp 1524 EC, the officers approved moving forward with two terrific projects.  Brigade Commander Josh Stover has been instrumental in designing and sourcing Confederate soldier marble statues which have been erected across the state and has now designed and commissioned a life size bronze bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  One of these will be donated by the Dragoons to the new SCV National Confederate Museum in Elm Springs.

Clay Model for N.B.Forrest Bronze Bust

The EC also approved an aluminum laminate sign for the Indian Hill Cemetery which the camp has maintained for the past few years after reclaiming from Mother Nature.  The sign will provide a brief history of the cemetery and the community which surrounded it in the early 19th century.  Compatriot Tyrone Crowley who does tremendous work with the Autauga County Heritage Association and many historical organizations researched the Indian Hill area and drafted the following for the historic marker sign:

Indian Hill Cemetery

               Adjacent to this cemetery, circa 1834, on the south side, stood Indian Hill Church, Sabbath School, and Academy, part of a community that predated Prattville.  First known burial is Brantley J. Cheek, who died in 1840.  Lt. A. Y. Smith, who accepted the company flag from Abigail Holt at the Prattville Male and Female Academy before the Prattville Dragoons went away to war in April 1861, is buried here, along with at least four other Confederate veterans: Dixon Sasnett Hall, Julius Thornton Rice, Luther Searcy Rice, and G. Z. Wood.  Students who attended school here and later became prominent in Prattville and Autauga County included Samuel Parrish Smith, Prattville's first doctor, and Jesse J. Cox, steamboat captain and first captain of the Prattville Dragoons.

Indian Hill Cemetery is maintained by the Prattville Dragoons, Camp 1524

National Sons of Confederate Veterans