Written by Michael Larson
We’ve been helping a veterans group called the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUV-CW) and showed them around Crystal Lake Cemetery earlier this year. They are surveying all of Minnesota, looking for Civil War veterans that need a grave marked, or whose marker is damaged or illegible.
So far we’ve installed about 16 brand new markers with 6-8 remaining to be delivered. The individual markers can be viewed at findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/1873790.
Some of the original markers were broken in various ways, sometimes from taking trees down or other incidents. Some were damaged by cars trying to turn around in the wrong spot. One I recall was a pile of marker pieces where they originally broke in other ways.
It was rewarding to see these new markers installed almost 160 years since the end of the war.
The VA provides the new markers and the veterans group works to get them installed. Any ceremony or dedication involves re-enactors, historical re-enactors of Lincoln or whatever and it’s a powerful event for the families that found it hard to get a new marker on their own.
Crystal Lake Cemetery was really cooperative, and their staff would mark known locations, especially where there was no marker at all. In Minnesota, the SUV-CW has identified well over 1,000 unmarked graves with perhaps the greatest number at Lakewood Cemetery.
The group is headed by Gary Carlberg, he’s the one holding the American Flag in the photo. Vets and families also met at the Victory Memorial celebrating Veterans Day on November 11.
Chapter 27 of Veterans For Peace have an annual event to honor the original intention of peace at the Victory Memorial. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 all hostilities ceased and bells were rung on the Western Front of World War I. This action continued for decades until Congress changed the name of the day to Veterans Day. It thus changed the day to honor war veterans rather than peace. We encourage the reestablishment of Armistice Day.