August C. Mersy, the beloved Commander of the 9th Illinois & Brevet Brigadier General. He served with F.K. Hecker during the “Hecker Uprising” in 1848, before immigrating to America. Residing in Belleville, he raised Company A, of the 9th Illinois in the first call for troops. Popular with the soldiers under his command, he led them from Cairo, Illinois (1861) to the Grand Review in Washington DC (1865). He succumbed to his war wounds in 1868 & is laid to rest in Walnut Hill Cemetery. Belleville’s 1st SV Camp was named in his honor in 1886.