The unveiling of a monument for 45 soldiers—from Bureau County--was very moving. And long overdue. In a drizzling rain on September 22, 2023 the crowd near the steps of the Bureau County History Center in Princeton got it right.
Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation on September 22…1862. And those formerly enslaved black men fought on behalf of the Union right up to the surrender of the Confederate army at Appomattox in 1865.
But history had overlooked them.
The names of those soldiers have now been inscribed on a bronze plaque less than 100 yards away from the Soldiers and Sailors monument where thousands of other veterans were honored.
But not these names.
It was right for the descendants of one of those Black soldiers to hear the 21-gun salute last September. It was right to hear a glorious rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Right to have politicians, citizens, students and mostly white people join in that celebration. Finally.
Those men risked their lives for a country that would spend nearly 160 years forgetting they fought for us all.
The plaque for those 45 soldiers is just one part of the History Center’s efforts to bring a more honest perspective to the city of Princeton; to reexamine what happened here in the past, which still shapes our thinking in the present, by the way. Watch for even more impressive efforts from the Bureau County History Center this year and next…and next.
I’m Rick Brooks, and that’s my Perspective.
