Civil War comes alive at Dundee Towsnhip cemetery

The last thing shoppers at the nearby Spring Hill Mall probably expected to hear Sunday afternoon was the roar of cannon fire.

Yet right across Route 31, men in Civil War costumes fired off rounds from howitzers, sending clouds of smoke wafting above the graves of actual Civil War soldiers buried in the Dundee Township West Cemetery.

At the Civil War Cemetery Walk, held by the Dundee Township Historical Society, visitors gained a vivid idea of how Dundee Township residents actually experienced the Civil War in the 1860s. In addition to the Civil War re-enactment by the cannon crew, several area residents dressed up as characters, including Dr. Edmond Cleveland, portrayed by Mike Buhrmann.

“Cleveland,” who returned to Dundee Township to practice medicine, told a group gathered for the walk about the substandard medical treatment of the soldiers, who fell victim to diseases often spread by nurses who reused bandages of wounded soldiers.

Marge Edwards, the event organizer, portrayed a Civil War musician and played a dulcimer, while tour guide Irene Komar explained that music played an important role in the war.

“Robert E. Lee once remarked that without music, there would have been no army,” said Komar. “Music passed the time, entertained, eased the fear of battle and brought back memories of home and family.”

Edwards said the program is a great way to teach history, while cemetery manager Don Alesi, dressed as a period gravedigger, said the cemetery was an ideal backdrop.

“I have been here 22 years, and to me a cemetery is a living history,” said Alesi. “ You can find out the history of a town by reading the headstones. We add a little more to it by giving a sense of what the people were like.”

Among those also buried in the cemetery is Dennison Jencks, who rode through Dundee to spread the word the firing on Fort Sumter.

Edwards said there are at least 60 Civil War veterans buried in the cemetery. In addition, there are 40 names on a Civil War monument of the men who died in the war or as a result of the war, in places like Shiloh.

Organizers said more lives were lost to diseases than to wounds of battle, including area resident Augustus Caesar Perry, who died in 1865, just days before his 20th birthday.

Mary Cobb of Carpentersville said the walk reminded her how soldiers like Perry were just “boys.”

“My son is 23 years old (and) I just thought of him going to war,” said Cobb. “He thought about joining but I was hoping he wouldn’t. Thank goodness he didn’t.”