Andrew D. Mitchell was born November 28, 1846 and died November 3, 1931.
The following is a speech writen and given by Andrew D. Mitchell September 22, 1910, to a group of Veterans. Some of the words are illegible:
"As you all know comrades I was one of those soldiers who faut in the war of 1861 to 1865. We are veterans and our white hairs tell that. Our feeling tell us that and as we look over the crowds here today we old Soldiers ralize the fact without being told that. Our days of fighting are past that our days of rest and peace from the gun are hear and that we shold every one of us come together on all Suitable occasions to pres each other's hands and look back and around us; to look back and see if that for which we fought honestly and truly, that for which we left our dead comrades upon the bare pine forests of the South - whether it remains secure to us and whether we may now sleep in rest and peace.
Every man be he American, English, French or German was as much interested that America slould be free land-to-day free from Maine to Texas and from Florida to Oregon - as you who are living here in your homes in Alabama. We fought for mankind. We fought for all the earth and for all civilization and now stand preminent among the nations of the earth with a glorious past, a magnificent present and future at which we may all rejoice.
Anybody can fight with a stranger, anybody can shoot an Indian down and it is not a very hard thing to pull the trigger on a foreigner; but when we came to shoot each other, when we had to go to fight these Southern friends of ours, and sometimes fight in our own streets, that called for nerve, and the highest kind of nerve; and that is what I want the citizens to bear in mind when he lookes at soldiers in this country. They went out, fought, and conquered, and when it was done they stopped and went home. The war has passed and a new generation has grown up, young men capable of doing as much as those who fought. From the simple mechanic and farmer we can secure as capable men for putting on the Blue and buckling on the cartridge belt and taking a rifle and if their hearts be in the right place, and their heads ordinarily clear they can go on the field and be as good men as Sheridan, Sherman or Grant ever were.
We have 50 million such people in America and the work is not yet done. I do not think there are any more civil wars before us, but we must be prepared for what God brings, and be true to ourselves, our country, and our God."
Service records compiled by Glenda Todd and used with her permission. This and other information about the history of the First and the men who fought with the unit
can be found in her book, First Alabama Cavalry, USA: Homage to Patriotism.