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civilwar_dewittpark_120Assisting with a project undertaken by Tompkins County’s Civil War Commemoration Commission, Cornell students are helping to set new headstones for ten local Civil War veterans buried at the Ithaca City Cemetery.

The eight students, members of the University’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), make up one of two crews providing assistance with veterans-related projects as part of the University’s annual “Into the Streets” program of the Cornell Public Service Center.  Another crew of seven is assisting with cleanup at the Veterans Memorials site at Ithaca’s DeWitt Park.

The students worked in the cemetery last Friday afternoon to set new stones, provided by the federal Office of Veterans Affairs, to replace original stones documented as missing or damaged, with either structural faults or wear that has obscured their wording.

Civil War Commission member Danny Wheeler, who is also Past National Commander-in-Chief for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, notes today’s work is part of an ongoing Commission initiative to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  Five stones were re-set earlier, and it’s hoped many more throughout the County can be documented and replaced over the five-year-long local commemoration.

Wheeler says painstaking research must take place for each stone to document it to qualify for federal replacement free of charge. 

“By researching them, we know exactly what is on each stone, so that we can submit each case to the federal government for replacement,”  Wheeler states. 

The History Center has worked closely with Commission members to research its records to come up the necessary information, and the City of Ithaca Department of Public Works has assisted with support at the cemetery.

The replacement project is among the first undertaken by the County’s Civil War Commission, as part of the five-year-long commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.  It’s hoped the replacement initiative can eventually be expanded to other areas of the county.

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