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The South Shore Civil War Memorial Trail hosted a ceremony this morning honoring a Valparaiso Civil War veteran who would later go on to become Mayor of Valparaiso. Marc Chase, who heads the Calumet Region Civil War Preservation Project, says Colonel Issac Suman commanded what was known as the “Bloody 9th” Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. Chase says the ceremony commemorates the 150^th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, at Hell's half-acre, in Murfreesboro, Tennesee, where Colonel Suman, who commanded a hundred or so Northwest Indiana soldiers, survived gunshot wounds. The ceremony took place at Maplewood Cemetery, just south of U-S 30 in Valparaiso, at 11am, where a Civil War artillery reenactment group fired a cannon in Suman’s honor, and historical preservation volunteers drank a non-alcoholic toast at the graveside. A new granite marker was also placed at the foot of the colonel's existing headstone, honoring his war-time sacrifices.

(Photo Courtesy of the Times)

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