1st anuual: Step back in history with Civil War veterans walk

A Civil War veterans cemetery walk has been planned for noon to 2 p.m. May 25, Memorial Day, at Evergreen Cemetery in Manitowoc.

Participants are asked to meet at noon at the information tent at the middle cemetery entrance on North 18th Street.The three-quarter mile self-guided cemetery walk will take participants back to an important time in American history as they visit 19 gravesites of the more than 235 Civil War veterans buried at Evergreen.At each gravesite, members of the Manitowoc County Civil War Roundtable re-enactors, members and descendants of the veterans will bring their stories to life.

This first-ever cemetery walk is sponsored by the Manitowoc County Civil War Roundtable and the city of Manitowoc Evergreen Cemetery commission. It’s a free event, open to the public.

In Section E2 of the original cemetery property the following graves will be visited: Sgt. Joseph Goodwin, farmer, killed Nov. 7, 1863, at the Battle of Rappahannock Station in Virginia; Lt. Nicholas Wollmer, banker and district attorney, died Aug. 20, 1864, from wounds received at Peach Tree Creek, Georgia; Pvt. Fred Buerstatte, wounded twice in battle, came home and was a pharmacist in Manitowoc for more than 40 years; Capt. Horace Walker, lawyer, killed Nov. 7, 1863, at Battle of Rappahannock Station, Virginia; Major Charles Walker, assemblyman and judge, brother of Horace Walker.

Five grave sites in Section W2 of original cemetery property: Captain William Hemeschemeyer, grocer, hotel operator and state assemblyman; Sgt. Herman Salomon, one of four Salomon brothers remembered in a monument at the Courthouse Square; Sgt. James Anderson, member of "Fighting Fifth," organized GAR Post 18, was a judge and state legislator; Cpl. William Noble, who guarded the remains of President Lincoln, was Reedsville’s first village president.

Four grave sites in Section A: Pvt. Peter Stoker, town of Franklin supervisor, first cheese factory in western part of township; Pvt. Jeremiah Reardon, lost his left arm in Battle of Resaca, Georgia, maintenance man at First Presbyterian Church in Manitowoc; Pvt. Emanuel Hollander, was in the liquor business and was drafted and deserted from the Confederate Army; Major Joseph Rankin, who served in the Wisconsin State Legislature and in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gravesites to be visited in Section B are for 11 veterans of the Civil War in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) grave spaces: Pvt. George Greenwood, William Heisenfeldt, Milo Schofield, Sgt. Frederick Schenck, Pvt. Heinrich Spinker, Pvt. Franz Reichert, Pvt. William Thornton, Pvt. George Warwick, Pvt. William Robinson, Pvt. Theodore Jahn, Pvt. William Schmidt; also in Section B, Capt. Ferdinand Ostenfeld, wounded at Perryville, Ky., and became U.S. Assessor in Calumet County, and was a brick manufacturer.

Two graves to be visited in Section C are Pvt. Christian Waack, farmer from the Newton area, and Capt. Charles Gustaveson, authorized to enlist 40 Scandinavians for military service, and became provost marshal for Kewaunee County.

Completing the tour will be a visit in Section G at the grave of Pvt. Frank Braun, who had escaped from Andersonville Prison, and was the last Civil War veteran to die in Manitowoc County.

Established in 1852 when Manitowoc was a village, Evergreen Cemetery is city owned and operated. It consists of 79 acres with an additional 27 acres a few blocks west of the current site. The cemetery has about 5,000 spaces still available for purchase.

At the present time there are about 27,000 burials in Evergreen, with an average of 196 burials a year.