We Remember...Du Quoin's Civil War Memorial Installed in Veterans Plaza at Keyes City Park Wednesday

The numbers are sobering. 364,511 union troops killed. 260,000 confederate troops dead. 281,881 more wounded. There were at least 93 from the City of Du Quoin--a town barely eight years old when the Civil War broke out--who were killed in the war that divided a nation.

By war's end, 326 soldiers were killed from Perry County.

Shortly before noon on Wednesday the memorial that fully honors Du Quoin's Civil War dead rolled into Keyes City Park, the fulfillment of a promise by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Stephens that those from Du Quoin who lost their lives in the Civil War would be remembered.

One stands out. He was Capt. Guy Carlton Ward from Du Quoin, who fought in the Battle of Shiloh and died in the Battle of Corinth (Mississippi) "at the moment of victory" on Oct. 4, 1862. These heroes inspired the new Civil War memorial in Keyes City Park. It will be dedicated on Saturday, Oct. 6 with ceremonies starting at 9 a.m. The newspaper will detail the service the week before.

Mr. and Mrs. Stephens watched as the monument was carefully lifted into place. It rests immediately west of the memorial in the veterans plaza in the park.

The monument reads "...dedicated to the men of Du Quoin who fought in the Civil War and to the more than 90 men who gave their lives to preserve the union and in the cause of freedom on this 150th anniversary of the war." Below that, the last three lines from the Gettysburg address: "...That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain and that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." Powerful words for a nation divided and a town whose losses were huge--far larger than in the World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. Capt. Ward answered the first call of the president for 75,000 men and his company was Co. G. 12th Illinois Infantry, the "Du Quoin Braves." He is buried in the IOOF Cemetery. The beautiful obelisk reads: "How sleep the brave, who sink to rest. With all their country's honors blest."