Home / From the History Room / Tazewell County and Pekin honor the ‘Men of the 29th’ during Juneteenth event
December 16, 2024
Tazewell County and Pekin honor the ‘Men of the 29th’ during Juneteenth event
Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s newest military memorial was dedicated during the county’s observance of the Juneteenth holiday on Wednesday morning, 19 June 2024. City, county, and state officials, as well as community leaders, veterans, and members of the public gathered for the Juneteenth ceremony on the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn, where the county had placed its new memorial honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in that regiment during the Civil War.
The 29th U.S. Colored Infantry was one of the Union Army regiments that took part in the first Juneteenth on 19 June 1865, when the end of slavery and the absolute equality of whites and blacks were proclaimed at Galveston, Texas, about two months after the surrender of the Confederate States of America.
Shown is the new Tazewell County 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial, dedicated during the county’s Juneteenth celebration in 2024. The monument lists the 12 men from Pekin and Elm Grove Township, Tazewell County, who served in the U.S. Colored Infantry during the Civil War.
A yellow rose of remembrance graces Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial outside the County Courthouse in downtown Pekin following dedication ceremonies held Wednesday, 19 June 2024, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.
Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry memorial, which was dedicated on Juneteenth in 2024, was placed adjacent to the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. Six men from Tazewell County, five of whom served in the 29th U.S.C.I. and one in the 55th Massachusetts U.S.C.I., joyously took part in the first Juneteenth in 1865.
Master of ceremonies during the dedication was Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds John C. Ackerman. Following the posting of the colors by the Tazewell County Color Guard and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, Pekin Mayor Mary Burress formally welcomed everyone to the Juneteenth celebration and memorial dedication, and noted how very appropriate it was that the dedication of the new memorial took place during Pekin’s ongoing Bicentennial celebrations. Burress also recalled last year’s Juneteenth celebration in downtown Pekin, when Legins-Costley Park was dedicated in honor of Nance Legins-Costley and her son Pvt. William Henry Costley, who was himself a member of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and a Juneteenth 1865 eyewitness. William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, offered an address in which he noted that the county’s new memorial included the State of Illinois’ first and only Illinois State Historical Marker that told the story of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, which was the largest African-American regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War. After Furry’s address, Jared Olar, local history program coordinator at the Pekin Public Library, gave brief biographical sketches of the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops. Nine of those 12 men came from Pekin, while three of them came from Elm Grove Township east of Pekin.
After Olar’s historical review, Dirksen Congressional Center director Tiffany White spoke about U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin’s crucial role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law a century after Tazewell County’s “Men of the 29th” stepped up to fight for their country and for an end to slavery. White also noted that the U.S. Senate approved the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 73-27 — in a vote that took place on Juneteenth that summer. After White’s speech, Illinois Rep. Travis Weaver, who represents Pekin and Tazewell County in the Illinois General Assembly, presented an Illinois House of Representatives Resolution honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and Tazewell County’s African-American soldiers that was formally adopted by the Illinois House on 15 May 2024.
The ceremony concluded with the formal unveiling of the memorial, which includes an Illinois State Historical Marker as well as a stone monument provided by Abel Vault & Monument and Amazon. Engraved on the monument are the names, ranks, companies, and homes of Tazewell County’s 12 African-American Civil War soldiers. Eleven of those soldiers enlisted in the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, while a 12th volunteer who had stepped forward to serve in the 29th was instead assigned to the 55th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, which had suffered casualties and was in need of more men. Two of those 12 men, Pvt. Morgan Day and Pvt. Thomas Shipman, gave their lives in service to their country, and had long had their names engraved on the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. The other 10 were Sgt. Marshall Ashby, Cpl. Nathan Ashby, Cpl. William Henry Ashby, Pvt. William J. Ashby, Pvt. William Henry Costley, Pvt. George H. Hall, Pvt. Edward W. Lewis, Pvt. Wilson Price, Pvt. Thomas Marcellus Tumbleson, and Pvt. George W. Lee.
Rev. Marvin Hightower, pastor of Liberty Church in Peoria and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Peoria Branch, offered closing remarks and a prayer of benediction for those in attendance and the new memorial.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman served as master of ceremonies at the dedication of the county’s new memorial honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from the county who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops.
The colors are posted at the start of the ceremony dedicating the new Tazewell County 29th U.S. Colored Infantry on the courthouse lawn in downtown Pekin during the local Juneteenth celebration, 19 June 2024.
Pekin Mayor Mary Burress addresses the attendees at the dedication of Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial on Juneteenth, 19 June 2024. Listening to Burress are Tazewell County Board members Nick Graff and Kaden Nelms and Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman.
Members of the public, veterans, and community officials listen as Pekin Mayor Mary Burress welcomes them to Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s Juneteenth 2024 celebration.
William Furry, executive directory of the Illinois State Historical Society, speaks during the dedication of Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial, which includes a new ISHS marker that tells the story of the 29th U.S.C.I.
Attendees listen to William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, during the dedication of Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial. The dedication was a part of Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s observance of Juneteenth. The 29th U.S.C.I. participated in the first Juneteenth in 1865, and six African-American men from Tazewell County were eyewitnesses of that first Juneteenth when the end of slavery and absolute equality of whites and blacks was proclaimed at Galveston, Texas.
Tiffany White, director of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Research Center in Pekin, tells of Dirksen’s crucial role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was approved a century after 12 African-American men from Tazewell County volunteered to fight in the Union Army during the Civil War.
During Tazewell County’s 2024 Juneteenth celebration, Ill. Rep. Travis Weaver addressed those in attendance and read an Illinois House of Representative resolution that he had offered to honor the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and Tazewell County’s Men of the 29th.
Illinois State Historical Society executive directory William Furry watches as the stone monument of Tazewell County’s U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial is unveiled at the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn during the Juneteenth 2024 celebration in downtown Pekin. Moments before, Furry and Tazewell County officials had unveiled the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry ISHS marker. Lifting the veil from the stone monument are Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman, Rev. Marvin Hightower, president of NAACP-Peoria Branch, Pekin Mayor Mary Burress, Steve Saal, superintendent of the Tazewell County Veterans Assistance Commission, and Maureen Naughtin of the Pekin YWCA’s Coalition for Equality.
Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman introduces Pastor Marvin Hightower, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Peoria Branch, at the dedication of Tazewell County’s 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial during the county’s Juneteenth celebration.
Rev. Marvin Hightower, pastor of Liberty Church in Peoria and president of the NAACP-Peoria Branch, addresses the attendees at Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s Juneteenth celebration on the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn on 19 June 2024. Rev. Hightower concluded with a benedictory prayer of dedication for Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial.
Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman shows Illinois House Resolution No. 782 recognizing and honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops during the Civil War.
A copy of Illinois House Resolution No. 782, offered by Rep. Travis Weaver and adopted by the House on 15 May 2024, recognizing and honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in the Colored Infantry during the Civil War.
The name of Pvt. Morgan Day of Pekin, a member of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, Co. G, is engraved on the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. While serving his country, Day contracted dysentery and died in Louisiana in May 1865.
The names of two of Tazewell County’s Civil War fallen, Milton S. Summers of the 5th Iowa Cavalry and Thomas Shipman of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, are memorialized together on the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. The juxtaposition of their names is a remarkable coincidence, because in 1827 Summers’ father Johnson Sommers helped rescue Shipman’s mother and siblings from kidnappers who sought to force the Shipman family back into slavery.
Local History Program Coordinator at the Pekin Public Library. I oversee the library's local history room collection and write a weekly local history column/blog.
