Millerville cemetery
THREE CIVIL WAR VETS share a
By Karen Tolkkinen
In a shaded cemetery in Millerville, history seems just a breath away when visitors glimpse the headstones of three Civil War veterans. All were born in Germany, and they lived during the era of the telegraph and westward expansion, of Colt revolvers and petticoats. Among them is the headstone of Frank Weber, the Millerville area’s first teacher and postmaster, according to a plaque installed next to his headstone. The plaque says Weber enlisted in Company G 9th Minnesota Infantry on Aug. 16, 1862, and that he was captured nearly two years later in Tennessee and was imprisoned at Andersonville Confederate Prison in Georgia. That camp was notorious for its miserable conditions. According to the National Park Service, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were kept prisoner there, and of those, nearly 13,000 died. Weber joined the Confederates in 1865 and reached the Union lines four months later. The Union Army judged his actions to be a “ruse to escape,” the plaque says. His record was cleared and he was discharged with a medical pension. He was also a founder of Seven Dolors Church in Millerville. He died in 1903.
Dennis Otto of Millerville locates the grave of August Wilm, a Civil War veteran buried in Millerville.
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