Dodge County lost two-thirds of its residents in Civil War; memorial honors them

A southern Minnesota group that's spent years planning a monument to local residents who served in the Civil War used Memorial Day as the occasion to unveil the structure.

ABC 6 News reports the group Friends of Wasioja started work on the memorial in 2008.

At Monday's unveiling, members of the group explained that on a per capita basis Dodge County had Minnesota's greatest enlistment in the Civil War. Two-thirds of those who served did not return, members told the station.

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KTTC notes that several of those at Monday's ceremony wore Civil War-era clothing and firearms were used to issue a salute to those who served.

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A portion of the memorial was completed in 2010. But ABC 6 says other parts of it – notably the inscriptions of the names of more than 100 Civil War veterans – were only recently finished.

The monument is amid the ruins of the Wasioja Seminary, which was built before the Civil War but lost most of its students and faculty to the military and was later damaged by a 1905 fire, ABC 6 reports.

Learn more about Friends of Wasioja at their Facebook page.