Community members and leaders gathered at Clat Adams Park in Quincy for a rededication of the Ulysses S. Grant marker at the park.

The plaque marks the spot where General Ulysses S. Grant and his troops crossed the Mississippi River to pursue Confederate troops during the Civil War.

"For him it began fight to keep the union together," said Curt Fields, who portrayed General Grant at the ceremony. "It very quickly began as he says himself, a war to end slavery as well as bring the country back together."

The ground is now a city park with people taking in the beauty of the Mississippi River and the Bayview Bridge.

The plaque that sits there was originally dedicated back in 2018 to honor general grant and the troops of the 21st Illinois Infantry Regiment.

"To celebrate our past, we've done it in a marker program that we've worked together on and this was part of that process of trying to remember our history when Ulysses S. Grant came in 1861 and this is where he crossed in the civil war right here in Quincy," said Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County Executive Director, Rob Mellon.

Allowing residents to learn about the past to make a brighter future.

"If we don't know our history, which is who we are and in the knowledge of who we are, we can confidently and positively move forward and continue to be the best example of who are," Fields Said.