Sept. 11: Marker to be unveiled honoring the Civil War’s ‘Chauncey Boys’

For immediate release:
Carl Denbow
(740) 591-8471
camp108suv@fastmail.net

A “Boys in Blue” historical marker commemorating three Chauncey Civil War volunteers will be dedicated on Sunday, Sept 11, in Dover Township Park, Chauncey. The public is invited to join in this patriotic salute to local heroes who fought to preserve the Union. The event is free and open to the public.
Remains of two of the Union veterans rest in Chauncey’s Nye Cemetery. Remains of the third “Chauncey Boy” rest in Athens’s Mount Calvary Cemetery.
The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. and will feature a keynote speech by Athens lawyer and Civil War historian William Walker and remarks by members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The Sons’ Athens County unit, John S. Townsend Camp 108, led the effort for the historical marker, funded by a grant from the Athens County Foundation.
The marker commemorates and honors a trio of young men from Chauncey who volunteered for the Union Army by traveling to Parkersburg and Clarksburg – in what was then Virginia – to enlist in a loyalist regiment that became the 1st West Virginia Cavalry.
Lt. Sidney Knowles and Lt. Hiram Robinett are buried in Chauncey’s Nye Cemetery. The third Chauncey Boy, Pvt. Robert Edwards, M.D., is buried in Athens’s Mount Calvary Cemetery. (Restoration of Edwards’s grave, also supported by the Sons of Union Veterans, and rededicated on Memorial Day, was made possible by support from the Athens County Commissioners.)
Knowles (1837-1863) died in combat at the Battle of Gettysburg. Robinett (1843-1868), survived the war, but like Edwards (1844-1869) – a Georgetown medical graduate who briefly practiced in Zaleski – died of tuberculosis.
Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War is composed of descendants of the soldiers and sailors who defended the Union against Southern secessionists. SUVCW, chartered by Congress, is the successor organization to the Grand Army of the Republic, the national postwar organization for Union veterans of the Civil War.
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