NEW MARKER PLACED AT JACKSON SOLDIER'S GRAVE

JACKSON -- Civil War enthusiasts again can find the grave of William L. Jeffers, a Confederate colonel buried in Jackson City Cemetery.

A new white marker, peaked on top to signify a Confederate soldier, has been placed on the grave.

"This was a prominent citizen from the past who is buried here," said Gary Gilbert of Cape Girardeau, a member of the Holmes Brigade of the Missouri Civil War Re-enactors.

"Col. Jeffers believed in his cause and fought for the Confederacy," Gilbert said. Jeffers also fought for the U.S. Army in the Mexican war during the 1840s and had a distinguished life after his military career, Gilbert said.

Gilbert said many people don't know a prominent Civil War colonel is buried in the cemetery. He thinks it is important for communities to remember their heritage.

Missouri Civil War Re-enactors like to honor those who died in the war, Gilbert said. Last year they rededicated the gravesite of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who burned his way across Georgia to take Atlanta. Sherman is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

The deteriorated condition of Jeffers' grave marker made it unrecognizable, Gilbert said. As part of a Civil War re-enactment in Jackson last October, the gravesite was rededicated in Jeffers' memory with special ceremonies, including rifle and cannon salutes.

But the new grave marker, which was provided by the U.S. Veterans Administration, hadn't been delivered at the time of the ceremony. The new marker was set up last week by Ford and Sons Funeral Homes, Gilbert said.

During the Civil War, Jeffers formed the 8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment of the Confederate States of America. He served under Gen. John S. Marmaduke, who was elected Missouri's governor in 1884.

Jeffers recruited about 200 members of the Jackson community during the Civil War, said James Nelson, former commander of Jackson American Legion Post 158. About two-thirds of the recruits died during the war, said Nelson.

Jeffers returned to Jackson after the war, Nelson said. Later Jeffers was a deputy sheriff in Dunklin County and battled the Ku Klux Klan in the Clarkton area. He opened the Jefferson Hotel in Dexter, one of the best in the area, Nelson said.

When Jeffers was sick late in his life, he moved to Hot Springs, Ark., and died in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1903.

Nelson finds it fascinating that Jeffers was so popular in the community. He said about 8,000 people were on hand at the first Jackson Homecomers in 1908 to see a 15-foot monument dedicated in Jeffers' honor. The governor spoke and troops were on hand.

The monument, provided by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, still stands at the entrance of the cemetery, about four blocks south of the courthouse on High Street.

Jeffers had to be a highly respected man before, during and after the Civil War, Nelson said. He said the names of Jeffers' recruits read like a Jackson phone book. Jackson was a Confederate stronghold during most of the war, Nelson said.