By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

Pontiac Township High School held a special program Wednesday morning to honor seven Civil War veterans students at the school had been researching.

Paul Ritter, environmental science teacher at the school, explained how the project came about.

“We’ve been doing this project as a gravestone science project for ten years, but about two years ago, Harold Schook grabbed us and said ‘Hey, is there anything you can do about these damaged and destroyed stones? These veterans gave their life for our country. We have to do something,’ so I grabbed Mr. Christie and Ms. Mack and the other teachers here at Pontiac High School and put the task to the students and let them come up with what you see today,” Ritter said.

Ritter and his students were able to work on the genealogy of the soldiers and found a living descendant of Thomas McNulty Vincent. Ken Faulkson, his grandson, three times removed, was present to accept a regimental flag from local honor guard.

“It was pretty crazy. The contact came through Facebook. Mr. Ritter was just doing a search, to try to find everybody that he could find that’s involved with the veterans here. I’m a little bit of an amateur genealogist, so I knew about my three-times great grandfather, but to hear about this project was really exciting,” Faulkson said.

The program was complete with selections from the PTHS music department, including an original piece called “The Dying Soldier.”