Details for Memorial Day at Old Rippey: New appreciation & gratitude for a Civil War story.

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

RIPPEY, Iowa, May 23, 2026 — After a year of research, hands-on learning and practice, Iowa history students at Greene County High School and members of the Greene County Historical Society on Monday, May 25, will launch a new public recognition of the Civil War service of the “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey,” as we call them.

The ceremony will happen at a 10 a.m. Memorial Day service at the Old Rippey Cemetery, near the spot where their story began.

Assisting will be members of the Friends Of Rippey community organization, the Washington Township Board of Trustees, and the town’s Kinkead-Martin Post #583 of the American Legion.

Here are the essential details about Monday’s 45-minute service:

—The service will be held at the Old Rippey Cemetery, which is three miles west of the current town of Rippey, and is just west on a country lane from County Road E57. (Map is at the end of this story.) Bring a lawn chair or blanket for sitting.

—Drivers should drop-off passengers and lawn chairs at the cemetery (attendants will help), then park vehicle a half-mile east & south at the farm home of Dennis & Sharon Ulrich (attendants will direct you). Then drivers will be shuttled back to the cemetery.

—Service begins promptly at 10 a.m., in silence from the crowd, with the Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey marching-in, in formation.

—National Anthem sung by Carter Petterson, William Graham, and Calleigh Fitzpatrick, Greene County High School seniors.

—Opening prayer by Rev. Heather Dorr, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in nearby Jefferson.

—A reading by Jed Magee, a member of our committee, of his own poem, “Ode to the Student Soldiers of Old Rippey.”

—Singing of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Greene County High School seniors Carter Pettersen and William Graham.

—Formal, rifle salute to the deceased from the color guard of the Kinkead-Martin Post #583 of the American Legion, and with “Taps” performed by Dick Bardole, who is also the caretaker of the Old Rippey Cemetery.

—Closing prayer by Pastor Dorr.

—A time for the public to talk to the Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey, by name, as portrayed by the GCHS students of today.

If this is all new to you, you can read the background in a story right here.