Author tells the tale of rural North Florida during the Civil War

Diane Swearingen visits Monticello Kiwanis Club to discuss her book

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

“I have recited every story in my mind a hundred times over to keep their voices from fading. This tale is mine to tell,” - excerpt from The Smallest Tadpole's War in the Land of Mysterious Waters

A special guest speaker visited the Monticello Kiwanis Club on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The guest speaker was published author Diane Swearingen, who had been invited to speak to the club by Kiwanian Floyd Faglie.
Swearingen is the author of The Smallest Tadpole's War in the Land of Mysterious Waters, a book that explores the Civil War history of the south, particularly Floridian history. Swearingen's book, while mostly fiction, follows the real-life stories of Swearingen's husband's family, and then spreads outward to share several factual details of North Floridian life and times during the American Civil War.
While introducing Swearingen, Faglie stated that he had purchased her book several weeks prior to the meeting at Bradley's Country Store as a gift for his father.
After purchasing it as a gift, though, Faglie became interested in the story that the book told and ended up buying his own copy.
“I've found it to be a fascinating book,” said Faglie. “It's written on a middle school level and encourages a love of reading, but also the history of this local area.”
Swearingen, who lives in Tallahassee, is quite familiar with the local history of the communities surrounding the Tallahassee region.
Swearingen's book is based on several real accounts taken from the history books and biographies of Civil War-era men and women; one such family whose story is told in Swearingen's book is her husband's family as well. In fact, the majority of the book is based on the life of Thomas Franklin Swearingen, who is the great-grandfather of Swearingen's husband.
Of greatest interest to Faglie, however, was the fact that Swearingen's book mentions many well-known (and some forgotten) details of Jefferson County history.
“What I like about the book is how it talks about Jefferson County and some of the landmarks around this area,” said Faglie while introducing Swearingen to the club.
Upon standing up to speak, Swearingen introduced herself and her book.
During the mid-1800s, Florida was still very much a frontier state, with rural pioneers and poor farmers making up the majority of the Floridian population.
“Florida was a beautiful place to live in the 19th century,” says Swearingen, though she quickly adds that life in Florida was far from easy; there were wild animals, difficult terrain and pests that the southern state's pioneers had to survive. Through all of their trials in settling and populating Florida, though, a vast number of Floridian pioneer families managed to support the Confederacy's war effort, and it is the stories of the wartime pioneers that Swearingen documents in her book.
“It is a family story that is based on a true story,” she explains.
In an effort to truthfully depict the lives and stories of Floridians around the Civil War, Swearingen says she researched extensively and describes the process of researching and writing as a “labor of love.”
Her efforts have paid off, as the book is now a part of the Florida Special Collections at the State Library of Florida.
One of the stories that found its way into her book was the tale of a Wakulla County man who was attempting to avoid conscription into the war by hiding out in the Jefferson County swamps.
Swearingen documents the man's capture, trial and eventual conscription into the Confederate ranks while paying homage to the county in which he was found.
“These are the kind of things that I enjoy,” says Swearingen. “There were so many unique things about this area that made it able to contribute to the war effort.”
In the prologue of her book, the narrator describes the rural area in which the story is set.
It sets the pace that will follow the rest of the tale as the story winds over clay dirt roads, ghostly oaks and Spanish moss; it covers the broad landscape of North Florida and South Georgia and details the lives of the settlers, pioneers and soldiers who left their mark on Floridian history.
“It's best I tell their story. Their story is my story, our lives woven together by the threads of history,” reads the prologue, setting the mood for the rest of the 220-page book.
The Kiwanis Club meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19 served as a joint meeting between the Kiwanis Club members, Altrusa Club members and Friends of the Library, with all of the interested clubs gathering to listen to Swearingen discuss her book.
The Smallest Tadpole's War in the Land of Mysterious Waters can be purchased from amazon.com for $14.99, but the local Friends of the Library chapter purchased three copies of the book and have donated them to the Jefferson County R.J. Bailar Public Library. Those who have a library card and are interested in reading Swearingen's book can check one of the three copies out of their local library.