Civil War veterans honored with headstones in Council Bluffs

A gaggle of Civil Conflict troopers got an extended overdue memorial in Council Bluffs this month.

For greater than a century, some Civil Conflict veterans lay in Fairfield Cemetery in unmarked graves. The Iowa Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil Conflict (SUVCW) honored them by giving them headstones.

Captain of the Kinsman Camp Guard Michael Carr mentioned it took the group years of analysis – led by members Roy and Linda Linn – to verify the burial spots of every soldier and to study their tales. After greater than a decade of labor, he mentioned he was proud to lastly protect their legacy with new markers.

“Each man who served this nation deserves to be honored and to have a spot with a stone,” Carr mentioned. “And plenty of the previous Civil Conflict vets haven’t got them.”

The headstones commemorate the lives of 35 troopers, with a further gravestone to honor the veterans whose burial places have been unable to be confirmed. The troopers served in numerous regiments and got here from completely different backgrounds – however all took half in preserving the Union.

The honored veterans survived the conflict and later got here to western Iowa from each northern state of the Union. They held a large swath of professions, various from instructor to farmer to engineer. Of the 35 troopers, three served in america Coloured Troops, a bureau of African American troopers.

SUVCW member and Civil Conflict scholar Steve Gates mentioned it’s essential for Iowans to recollect why these males fought. He mentioned the overwhelming majority of troopers within the battle volunteered to combat.

“People felt that the nation was actually an exception to the remainder of the world, and that the establishments that supported their freedoms had made life what it was and was value preserving,” Gates mentioned.

The graves encompass the Kinsman Monument, a memorial to Colonel William Kinsman who commanded the twenty third Iowa infantry. Greater than 76,000 Iowans fought for the Union within the Civil Conflict, and about 13,000 died within the conflict, together with Kinsman.

Gates mentioned he hopes Iowans use Memorial Day as a time to recollect these veterans and replicate on the values for which they stood.

“If we don’t keep in mind and perceive why troopers served, we’re certain to undergo from it and to repeat among the similar errors that contributed to these issues.”