The Peace that Follows

In February of 1864, nineteen-year old Alexander Smith from Kalamazoo found himself in the deep south fighting for the Union Army in the Civil War. He saw combat action in South Carolina and Florida, and in April, 1865, his Regiment took in Confederate soldiers who surrendered their guns under the white flag of truce. The war was over, and Alexander Smith survived it. He returned to Michigan to live out the rest of his life.

Beyond the Civil War, in his life Smith would know peace that follows. And beyond his death, local patriots are making sure he continues to rest in that same peace he helped our country earn. Even more extraordinary about Smith's story is that he was a black man, fighting with the 102nd Regiment of the United States Colored Troops, Company F. Alexander Smith risked his life to fight for a country that had not yet even given him basic rights.

On Saturday, May 16, at 2 p.m. in the Pine Grove Cemetery, at the corner of Wise and Paulson Roads in Gobles, Smith and four other Civil War veterans will be remembered in a ceremony to rededicate their tombstones, repaired and replaced by the men and women of the General Pritchard Camp 20 Sons of the Civil War and the Daughters of the Union, 1861-1865.

144 years after the end of the Civil War, local men and women continue to remember and honor the veterans of our nation's bloodiest period. People like Tom Bruce of Gobles are on a mission to make sure the brave soldiers who fought in the Civil War continue to be honored, and that their descendants are aware of the years of service these soldiers gave to our country. Bruce is a member of the local Sons of the Civil War unit, General Pritchard Camp 20, out of Kalamazoo.

Bruce has taken charge of surveying the cemeteries of Van Buren County for the grave stones of Civil War veterans, and that means visiting cemeteries long forgotten, and even overgrown. He described finding grave sites in small local cemeteries that have sunk deep into the earth, and are overgrown with vegetation, stones aged and weathered over time and in disrepair. That's where Bruce and his friends take over. Working with local governments and the federal government, Sons of the Civil War contact the right people to provide new tombstones and needed repair to the sites where these soldiers have been laid to rest. The work is volunteer, and funds to pay for the repairs are provided by a federal government program for veterans. No local money is used to pay for this effort.

Bruce and the Sons of the Civil War also attempt to contact the descendants of the veterans, to provide information about the whereabouts of ancestors long gone, and often forgotten. Bruce describes contacting descendants in Oregon who were not aware of the effort on behalf of their ancestor.

Come out to the re-dedication ceremony at the Pine Grove Cemetery. It's an opportunity to join the men and women who continue to honor the veterans of our nation's Civil War, to contribute your presence and thoughts and prayers of gratitude and remembrance for the sacrifices that made our country what it is today. The peace that followed Alexander Smith's service in the Civil War in 1865 is the same peace we enjoy today in a country made stronger by having once tested its unity in a bloody war, and, as in the Battle Hymn of the Republic, whose truth goes marching on. 


Note: This blog post is from a series originally published as personal essays written for the Van Buren County Advertiser from 2008-2014 by Corey Harbaugh under the title It's All Good. The It's All Good columns were written to feature and celebrate life in and around Gobles, Michigan.