Sons of Union Veterans honoring man for restoring Mass. graves

Gordon Shepard is being recognized by a national Civil War descendants’ organization for his restoration of Union graves. Shepard, a U.S. Army veteran, completed a restoration project on the Civil War section of Riverside Cemetery in Saugus, Mass., in April. The plaques in the Civil War section were mismatched. Some were taller than others and almost all of them differed in style and font. Shepard found one that was legible and used a combination of the different styles, and used the stone as a model when he recreated the markers. Shepard found an old picture of the monument and learned that two small ledges once held stacks of cannonballs. He reached out to another veteran volunteer, Nick Milo, who helped him replace them with stacks of granite balls. • Article