The Arlington Heights Memorial Day parade and ceremony will take on even greater meaning this year, with the discovery of nine new Civil War veterans, from Arlington Heights, who died in the war. That brings the number to 68 of Arlington Heights soldiers who died while serving the country — from the Civil War to Afghanistan.
Brian Maloney helps to lay commemorative bricks at Memorial Park.
Their names are listed on the back of the “Arlington Remembers” signs that will be handed out by Scouts at the parade, and they appear on Arlington’s Fallen Heroes posters that hang throughout the village. The names of these newly identified Civil War veterans also have been engraved in commemorative bricks and laid around the Eternal Flame sculpture in Memorial Park. Fittingly, they will be among the 68 names read aloud during the Memorial Day ceremony, at 11 a.m. at Memorial Park.
They include: Theodore E. Peck, Edward Clarence Field, Dennison Billings, Henry Goodrich Meacham, Henry S. Kingsley, John Bachelder, James Bachelder, Frederick Theodore Tilley and Leonard Doten.
It was Arlington Heights historian and researcher Brian Maloney who uncovered these men. What began as a story for the quarterly newsletter of the Arlington Heights Historical Society, grew into a working manuscript of more than 50 pages, complete with information about each soldier, their company in the Civil War and how they died, as well as all of the resources he used.
The Eternal Flame stands at Memorial Park with the inscription: Because of our Heroes and their Families, Freedom Survives.
Among them is Cpl. Leonard Doten, whose little known gravestone is in the Wheeling Township Arlington Heights Cemetery. Although obscured by decay, Cpl. Doten fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, among others. He died Nov. 5, 1863 in a Union hospital in Washington D.C., from an acute illness. He was 26.
“More people should know that this fascinating soldier — who experienced so many of the events that shaped our country — has a grave in our town,” Maloney says.
Maloney adds that he was drawn to finding out more about these men — and identifying them — since they were around his age and lived in what is now Arlington Heights when they served.
“It was a combination of wanting a list of local soldiers who fought in the Civil War,” Maloney says, “and a desire to ensure that there were no other forgotten fallen heroes of the Civil War from Arlington Heights that drove me to take on this mammoth of a project.”
Greg Padovani, chairman of the Veterans Memorial Committee of Arlington Heights, was thrilled with the discoveries, describing Maloney’s research as exceptional.
Gravestone of Cpl. Leonard Doten in Wheeling Township Arlington Heights Cemetery
“He identified nine Civil War Fallen Heroes from our town who have been lost to memory for man more 160 years,” Padovani says. “He also he described many details of life in Antebellum Dunton.
“His work provides a critical context for the lives of each fallen hero,” he adds. “It leaves you with the profound realization of what was lost for the families — and the community — when these young men died in the service of our nation.”
To read a copy of the manuscript, email Brian Maloney at: [email protected].
Other News:
