Samuel Belton Horne.  The fiery newspaper editor, Thomas M. Clarke, presided over a meeting held in Winsted on the evening of April 15, 1861 to encourage young men to answer the call by President Abraham Lincoln for 90-day volunteers to serve in the Union army.  A slight, Irish-born teenager stepped forward and into the annals of Winsted history. It is not known if Samuel Horne was the first volunteer to register from Connecticut, or even the first from Winsted as various early histories cited. He was the first at that meeting. Nevertheless, he was almost rejected due to his lack of weight, only 95 pounds. Yet, due to his athletic ability and his pluck, the doctor reversed his decision. Little did anyone suspect what this youth, a graduate of the town’s common schools and possibly a private academy, would accomplish during the war and in his lifetime.

Horne was mustered into the Second Volunteer Infantry, Company K and mustered out after 90 days. He then re-enlisted as a Sergeant into Company E of the Eleventh Infantry which began a string of promotions until he was made Captain of Co. H. Horne saw action 25 times and was wounded three times.  During the Cold Harbor campaign, on June 3, 1864, he was wounded twice within the hour. The painful shoulder wound made Horne’s long, overnight ride in a wagon over rutted roads to the field hospital, a painful memory.  “Pain, loss of blood and lack of food… made it the most wretched twenty –four hours in my army life” claimed Horne reminiscing.  Three days after being promoted to captain, led him to his final injury at Chapin’s Farm which earned him the Medal of Honor. On September 29, 1864, Horne was severely wounded while carrying an order to the front lines. Horne’s horse was shot from under him. Pulled out from beneath the dead animal, Horne, with severe internal injuries, made his way by foot to the front to complete his mission. His slow recovery took him off the field of battle but his discharge on November 17, 1864 did not take him out of the war. He volunteered and joined the Provost Marshall’s office which investigated counterfeiting, espionage and other criminal activities.

After the war, Horne eventually made his way back to Connecticut where he set up a law practice after studying law in Michigan during the 1870s. He was elected to the Connecticut state legislature representing Winsted in 1884, the first foreign-born representative to do so. In 1887, Connecticut Governor Phineas Lounsbury made Horne his aide with the rank of colonel. The Connecticut Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) the predecessor of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) was commanded by Col. Horne in 1888. He had previously organized and commanded the Winchester GAR, Palmer Post #33.  The day after the dedication of the Winsted Soldiers’ Monument in September 1890, Horne left Winsted to assume his position as U.S. Counsel at St. Thomas, West Indies- appointed by President Benjamin Harrison. In 1895, he became Connecticut’s Labor Commissioner and in 1897 he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Civil War. This gallant figure, presumably the model for the soldier on Winsted's Soldiers’ Monument, died at the Litchfield County Hospital after becoming ill at his North Main Street home in1928 and was buried in Forest View Cemetery.