The rest of the story
You never know whose going to walk in the door of the Sturgis Historical Museum. The other day it was Tom and Heather Miller, and his 99 year-old-father, Richard Miller. They came primarily to buy Mike Mort’s movie, “Journey of the 11th.”
The Miller family loves history and they told us interesting news about William Stoughton, a Sturgis Civil War hero. They feel very connected to Sturgis because their ancestor fought in the Civil War under Colonel William Stoughton and lived to return home. They have extensively toured Civil War battlefields including Stones River, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, William Stoughton, a Sturgis lawyer and politician, left his career and family for the battlefield to serve as a colonel of the 11th Michigan Infantry.
Today a statue of Colonel Stoughton stands on the battlefield memorial park at Chickamauga where the Michigan 11th made a heroic stand against the Confederate forces. Although the battle was at times hand-to-hand, the 11th prevailed. Their strategy allowed the Union Army to escape back to Chattanooga.
After the war, the surviving Michigan 11th veterans collected about $1,500 and commissioned a statue of Colonel Stoughton to be placed at the site of the battle. Stoughton’s is the only statue of a colonel on the Chickamauga/Lookout Mountain/Missionary Ridge battlefields. All the other statues are generals, Miller said.
At some point, possibly decades ago, the statue was damaged either by a tree limb or vandalism. The hands and sword were broken off the statue.
“My Great Great Grandfather, Private William L. Lords was one of the surviving soldiers and my son and I felt it was our responsibility to get Colonel Stoughton’s statue repaired,” Miller said.
Miller contacted the Gettysburg National Park Service and got information on monument restoration. His plan was to raise private donations from the Sturgis area residents to fund this huge project.
However, Miller’s son, Shaun Miller, who lives near Nashville, Tenn., contacted the National Park Service that oversees the Chickamauga Battlefield and after several months of negotiations, the park service took responsibility and immediately began the restoration of Stoughton’s statute.
“The day we took my 99-year-old father to the battlefield for a guided tour, the statue was in the process of restoration,” Miller said. “We arrived exactly at the moment that the workers were installing a plaster cast of the new hands and sword for fitting and photos before crafting the stone replacements. It was so exciting.”
After decades of disrepair the Colonial Stoughton statue, a Sturgis hero, is now completely restored.
Miller said that of the 1,200 St. Joseph County soldiers who went off to the Civil War only about 350 came home. The survivors gathered outside Stoughton’s Sturgis home and the colonel came to the balcony and once again addressed his men of the 11th. The veterans had also saved one of their battle flags and presented it to Stoughton. After his death, it was taken to the Capitol in Lansing where it is preserved. The Millers also recently visited Lansing where it is stored.
Thank you Miller family for keeping history alive.
Rosalie Currier, director of Sturgis Historical Museum ~ at the Depot.