by Joseph Gresser
DERBY — When Derby’s Civil War memorial was raised in 1866, not much more than a year after the conflict ended, it was the first of its kind in Vermont. Some say it was the first Civil War memorial in the nation, Ken Lawson told a crowd of over 100 people who showed up Saturday for the rededication of what has become, over the years, Derby’s veterans memorial park.
Mr. Lawson, who retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of Colonel, was the guiding hand behind a town effort to commemorate all veterans at the site of the memorial. As Major General Henry Harder, the Assistant Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard, noted in his remarks, the memorial, when erected, bore only the names of the 53 Derby residents who died in the Civil War.
“Fifty-one years later, three bronze plaques were added with the names of 256 Derby men who served, and from then on, this ground belonged to every veteran, not only the fallen,” General Harder said.
The effort to be inclusive is clear in the design of ….
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