Topeka ? Kansas students and their teachers are being encouraged to learn more about Civil War veterans buried in the state’s cemeteries.

Details of something called “Sleeping Heroes: The Impact of Civil War Veterans on Kansas Communities” were announced Friday in Topeka.

Because so many veterans homesteaded in Kansas after the war, it became known as the Soldiers State.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt is a descendant of one of the Civil War veterans who settled in the state. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that he praised the statewide history project at Friday’s event.

The inspiration is students in Glasco who found 83 Civil War veterans buried in the small north-central Kansas town’s cemetery as part of a 2006 school project.

Details of the project and a database are posted on the Kansas Historical Society’s website.