Politics & Government

Tributes to Civil War, Today's Veterans Mark Walnut Creek Ceremony

Original film tells the story of Civil War soldiers who are remembered by their descendants, present-day Creekers.

In a Veterans Day flourish, the city of Walnut Creek did a double-time march.

It saluted the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the stories of soldier descendants of Walnut Creekers — and saluted more than a hundred veterans who came to the ceremony at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

Before an audience of more than 400, Mayor Cindy Silva presided over the ceremony and an original video mixing in the stories of soldiers related to present-day Walnut Creekers. One of the latter was Cindy Silva, who herself had contributed stories that came from her great grandfather Adam Eisley, a Civil War soldier who left the East after the war to mine for silver in Alaska and then settled in Auburn, Placer County.

"While the Revolution created us, the Civil War defined us as a nation," said Silva.

"It was beautiful," said one veteran about the film and the tribute to veterans. Tom Catalano appreciated the education about the Civil War (in which more American service members died than in all other American wars combined).

Catalano himself served in the Army's 37th Division, 14th Corps, in the Philippines in World War II. He processed diverse prisoners of war as they returned to the Allied lines: Dutch, Brits, Australians, Americans and Gurkhas (soldiers from the mountain regions of Nepal and India).

He said he gets emotional around the time that Veterans Day rolls around each November. "It brings to me how lucky we are," Catalano said.

Scott Denison of the Lesher Center created the video and City Clerk Patrice Olds coordinated with the Walnut Creekers who shared stories of their Civil War veteran ancestors. The video will be posted on the city's website next week and will be aired on Walnut Creek Television.

The video and ceremony was accompanied by the Walnut Creek Concert Band, conducted by Harvey Benstein. The band played Civil War era military songs as well as the anthems of the Coast Guard, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Army as the veterans of the respective services stood in the auditorium and basked in the applause.

The Civil War veterans remembered by present-day Walnut Creekers included Don Fraser, Henry Hill, Charles Redington Mudge, Godwin Scudamore, Thomas Shields, John C. Steptoe and Samuel Weller.

The Walnut Creek story contributors included Martha Alexanderson, Renee Brekke-Partridge, Oscar Burdick, the Rev. Dr. Daryl J. Clemens, Jack Fallin, Richard Jacobson, Lolita Lowry, Tom Martin, Karen and Tom McQueen, Roy Shields, Brooke Taylor, the Rev. Dr. Sumner Walters, Wayne White, Susan Williamson, and Don and Pat Weller.


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