Civil War service draws supporters in 89-degree heat

The metal chairs were very hot on the people’s seats and the sun beat down on the people’s heads last Thursday, but they were not to be deterred from honoring the 26 men from the tri-community who died during the Civil War.
The Memorial Ceremony to Honor Civil War Soldiers from Belleville, Sumpter, and Van Buren was held at the Veterans Memorial at Horizon Park in Belleville with the audience mostly on chairs set up on High Street and a large cast of presenters in front of the memorial.
The information being presented was gathered by the Bring Our Boys Home Research Group that has been working for several years at the Belleville Area District Library with a grant from the Charles B Cozadd Rotary Foundation.
Ginger Bruder, who led the research group, said gathering the information, which included reading over more than 100 books, applying for government records, and traveling to study documents, took longer than the Civil War.
The group honored 25 Civil War casualties from the tri-community and their names have been engraved on the lake side of the Veterans Memorial.
Henry Lewis earned a Medal of Honor and a special marker was put at his gravesite in Soop Cemetery in Van Buren Township.
More than a dozen people were dressed as Civil War personalities and they walked among members of the audience to introduce themselves and tell their stories.
The Belleville Community Chorus sang the “Star Spangled Banner” and, at the end of the ceremony, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Local residents who are descended from Civil War soldiers were introduced.
Ginger Bruder began her personal study of the Civil War because she had soldiers in her family from Ohio. Her husband Keith had Civil War soldiers in his family from Monroe County. She said she saw the importance of collecting information on these men.
She gathered together community members who had the same interest, formed a group that meets at the library and applied to the Rotary Club for a foundation grant, and the work began.
She said they are not done researching local soldiers in the Civil War and plan to update cemetery lists at all cemeteries in Belleville, Sumpter, and Van Buren.
The group also plans to present programs about the Civil War history of the tri-community at the library and Belleville Area Museum and to work with the schools. There also is a walking tour being planned of the downtown area Civil War sites.
Bruder also said a play or program on the Sultana is coming. The Sultana was a steamboat full of newly released Union prisoners that sank after the Civil War in the Mississippi River, killing more people than those who died on the Titanic.
Those Civil War soldiers honored, with brief life stories being told, were: Henry Lewis, Seril T. Chilson, Seth C. Runyan, Jasper Burt, Roderick J. Biddle, George Martin, James Crysler, Cornell W. Crysler, DeForest Carpenter, Lewis B. Truesdell/Truesdale, Charles Bush, John Foster, James Sterling, Albert H. Tyler, Ira Austin, Joseph Davis, Vincent King, Charles Bucklin, Henry H. Mills, Robert H. McQuaid, William Brown, Lewis Spawn/Spaun, George E. Jewett, Hiram R. Hunt, Benjamin C. Seaman, and Reuben Corey/Cory.
Members of the Bring Our Boys Home group that researched the soldiers are: Ginger Bruder, Keith Bruder, Kathy Graham, Debbie Juriga, Pat Marshall, Lori Minthorn, Connie Reed, Virginia Truran, and Jim Wagner.