By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Photo/Melanie Petrucci
Shrewsbury – On Oct. 26, a beautiful Saturday morning, members of the community including residents and elected officials gathered on the Town Common to re-dedicate the Civil War Monument to commemorate its 150th anniversary.
The ceremony was sponsored by the Shrewsbury Historic District Commission. John Campbell, commission chair, served as emcee.
“The reason we are here is to honor the Shrewsbury men whose names are on that monument. They gave their lives for the Union,” Campbell noted.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and State Representative Hannah Kane (R-Shrewsbury) along with Board of Selectmen chair Maurice DePalo, vice-chair Beth Casavant, Selectmen John Lebeaux and John Samia, as well as Jason Palitsch, member of the Shrewsbury School Committee, were also in attendance.
“We are here to rededicate our monument but we are really here to rededicate our commitment and remembrance of those who gave all that they had to our community and our commonwealth and our country…,” Kane remarked.
“This is a glorious morning for all of us to come together…I come to this moment so proud of our hometown with so many of you who are choosing to be here to mark this special moment that continues our history…,” Polito said.
Polito paid homage to those lives lost and reassured their place in Shrewsbury’s history along with the role that Shrewsbury has played as well, noting the importance of the Civil War monument and other historical markers on the Town Common.
The Memorial Service of Re-dedication was conducted by Commander-in-Chief Edward Norris Department of Massachusetts, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The service itself was filled with pageantry and reverence and included a moving rendition of the national anthem as sung by Jeanine Vitale, soloist from the First Congregational Church who was accompanied by bells from the church bell tower.
Maurice Healy, past camp commander of the Willie Grout Camp 25, Department of Massachusetts, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, read the 29 names of those soldiers that the town lost in the war, which are also listed on the monument.
Michael Perna, Shrewsbury Veterans’ Agent and Town Historian, along with MaryCatherine Knight, Past President Department of New England Auxiliary, and Fred Russell Commander, the American Legion Post 397, gave brief remarks.
The ceremony concluded with Taps and Vitale performing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
