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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

State to mark anniversary of Civil War end

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Gov. Mark Dayton and members of the Civil War Commemoration Task Force announced plans for a bell-ringing event on April 9. Tim Pugmire|MPR News

Minnesota will commemorate the 150

th

anniversary of the end of the Civil War next month by ringing bells.

Gov. Mark Dayton and members of the state’s Civil War Commemoration Task Force held a news conference today to highlight the anniversary, and to join a nationwide effort to mark it by ringing bells.

They’re asking churches, schools and other locations to ring bells at 2:15 p.m. on April 9. That’s the day and time of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia in 1865.

Dayton noted that 600 Minnesota soldiers were killed in Civil War battles, and another 1,800 died from injury and disease.

“Given Minnesota’s prominent role, given the importance of our soldiers and sacrifices they made, it’s very fitting we commemorate with a proclamation and the events that are going to go on on April 9,” Dayton said.

State Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, said bell ringing is an appropriate way to mark the anniversary.

“They sounded in April of 1865, at least in the north, when the war ended to joyously proclaim the end of this tragic conflict,” Urdahl said. “May they ring again. May they peal again on April 9, 2015, to remember what happened 150 years ago.”

Organizers said they are still working on an official state ceremony for that day, possibly at Fort Snelling.