LELAND, Ill. — Between the approaching Memorial Day weekend and the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, the timing was right to recognize a local warhorse that survived the war to work on a rural DeKalb County farm.

On May 19, the DeKalb County Historical-Genealogical Society, friends and about 50 members of the Wesson family gathered to dedicate a plaque to the memory of Old Charley. The horse is buried on the farm, located between Waterman and Leland, that has been in the Wesson family since 1849.

Although the society has placed a number of plaques throughout DeKalb County, President Sue Breese said this is the first time it has honored a horse. “This is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,” she said. “We thought it would be something fun to do.”

Fellow member Barry Schrader noted the group hasn’t put up a plaque since 1988, so “this was a good place to start, especially since we had so much history about this legendary horse.” Kent Wesson credited Schrader with setting up the dedication ceremony.

Silas Dexter “Deck” Wesson briefly rode Old Charley in 1862. In 1864, after recovering from his wounds, Old Charley was reassigned to the soldier. Deck became so attached to the steed, he purchased him from the Army with “Gold Option” bonds at the end of the war and brought him back to the family homestead.

Am going home tomorrow, Wesson wrote in his diary upon his discharge in 1865, and Old Charley is going with me. We have fought together and we go home together.

“We feel pretty honored,” Kent Wesson said. “Old Charley is pretty famous around here. When you mention him, everyone knows who you’re talking about.”

According to Deck’s diary, he served in the Union Army from 1861-65 and was part of the detail that found John Wilkes Booth’s boot in the office of Dr. Samuel Mudd, a co-conspirator in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln. Wesson’s diary notes that Booth had been invited to an Army party at brigade headquarters a day after the assassination.

What makes Old Charley’s story even more heroic is the four-legged soldier was wounded twice. The first time, he was shot in the knee during a battle in Naperville, Va., and taken to a “horse hospital” to recuperate. He was returned to service and shot again, this time through the nose, at the Battle of Beverly Ford.

Left for dead on the battlefield, he got to his feet and hobbled back to camp. Legend has it that when Old Charley was shot the second time, he was being ridden by Simon Suydam, who later became Deck’s brother-in-law when Deck married Magdaline Suydam.

“He carried that ball with him for about three months before it was finally removed by a Somonauk vet,” said Leland historian Laurinda Kidd.

“Cavalry soldiers thought it would be easy service to sit on a horse. They found out that wasn’t the case. They had to train those horses to respond to the bugle calls, stand still when the rider fired his weapon and not spook at the sound of the cannons,” Kidd said.

“When they told me we were going to dedicate a plaque to Old Charley, I said, ‘You want me to give a eulogy for a horse?’” Kidd recalled. But after further research, she said she learned Old Charley was a true hero.