The ninth annual Burns Township Memorial Day commemoration will take on special meaning in this Sesquicentennial year for Anoka County.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of Anoka County, Burns Township Veterans of the Civil War will be the focus of the service Sunday, May 27.

Beginning at 2 p.m., members of the Second Minnesota Battery of Light Artillery Reenactors will do cannon firing demonstrations with a replica 10 pound parrot rifle in the field behind the Nowthen Alliance Church, 19653 Nowthen Blvd., Burns Township.

When this Civil War unit was originally formed in 1862, there were more men from Anoka County than any other county in the state. Two of those men, Charles Noggle and Joseph Varney, were from Burns.

A special commemorative booklet with the stories of all of Burns’ Civil War veterans will be available.

The Memorial Day service begins at 3 p.m. with a bugler playing the traditional Army Church Call from the 1860s. Fully uniformed 1860s reenactors will form a color guard to post the American and Christian flags at the front of the auditorium before taking their seats for the service.

Veterans from Burns will be honored during the service, as will those who are lifelong senior residents of the township. The names of those veterans who have passed on will be read, and the service will close with a hymn from the 1860s and the traditional Taps.

Refreshments follow the service. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend this very special Memorial Day event as a part of the Anoka County Sesquicentennial.

For information, contact Don or Harvey at Greenberg Implement, 763-441-3555 or at www.greenbergmotor.com.

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