Veterans Day Ceremony

, has partnered with the 8th IL Cavalry Reenactors to hold a special Veteran’s Day ceremony on Sunday, November 13 at 2pm.  This event will honor the fallen heroes of the Civil War at the Wheaton Cemetery, 1209 S. Warrenville Road, Wheaton.

A wreath will be laid at the grave of Marcellus Jones, a member of the 8th Illinois Cavalry. One hundred and ninety eight men from DuPage County joined the 8th Illinois Cavalry and fought in several significant battles including Mechanicsville, the Peninsula Campaign, Brandy Station, Antietam and Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Marcellus Jones, a member of the 8th Illinois Cavalry and resident of Danby (now Glen Ellyn), claimed to have fired the first shot at Gettysburg on July 1 1863.  After the war, he returned to the site of his famous shot and erected a monument there in memory of the event. The soldiers in this regiment pursued some of the most infamous enemies during the war including John Mosby (nicknamed the“Grey Ghost”) and John Wilkes Booth after President Lincoln’s assassination.  Members of the 8th Illinois also had the distinguished honor of assisting with Lincoln’s funeral train in Washington D.C.

The event will include an invocation and benediction by Chaplain Jerome Kowalski of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War along with a poem and remembrances by members of the 8th IL Cavalry Reenactors.   After the ceremony, attendees are welcome to visit the museum, located at 102 E. Wesley and view the exhibit, DuPage County and the Civil War: A Local Perspective, which features several artifacts, letters and photographs of local soldiers and their families.