Bob Wandel, dressed in historical clothing, speaks about the gravestone of a Lawrence soldier during a walking tour of Oak Hill Cemetery on July 4, 2014.

Bob Wandel, dressed in historical clothing, points out the rounded-top shape of a Civil War tombstone.

Patriotic Lawrencians learn about Lawrence veterans on a cemetery tour July 4, 2014.

Dozens of Lawrencians celebrated Independence Day not by shooting sparks into the sky, but by paying tribute to those who laid down their lives for our nation’s freedom.

For two hours on Friday morning, Bob Wandel of the local chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War led a walking tour through Oak Hill Cemetery, 1605 Oak Hill Ave., pointing out the graves of American veterans buried in Lawrence and telling their stories of life at home and on the battlefield.

Wandel pointed out gravestones dating back to 1865, from the Civil War to World War I, describing the evolution of the design of a soldier’s stone.

“You can tell a Civil War stone by the round-shaped top and the shield around the name,” Wandel said. “Later, the shield was dropped but the same rounded-top shape stayed.”

A few crowd favorites included the tombstones of three of Lawrence’s Medal of Honor winners: Salem Gleason of the War of 1812 and Samuel J. Churchill and Thomas N. Graham of the Civil War.

Another notable grave was that of Alfred Cecil Alford, who at the age of 24 was one of the first U.S. soldiers to die in the Spanish-American War. His headstone reads, “I give my country no halfhearted service. A Christian soldier.”

The walking tour’s patriotic participants learned some forgotten secrets of Lawrence during the event. The group viewed the grave of President Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the interior, John Palmer Usher, who unbeknown to many is buried in the cemetery.

Wandel gave information not only of soldiers’ deaths, but also accounts of their lives in Lawrence. He told the story of Capt. James B. Shane, a Civil War veteran who went deaf from cannon fire and lost his left leg from gunfire.

Wandel said when Shane lived in Lawrence after the war, the local children teased him for his one leg, so Shane fatally shot one of them. The veteran was convicted of murder and sent to the Lansing prison, but was released and returned to Lawrence after a year, Wandel said.

Wandel, an Air Force veteran, recently started a campaign to replace regional soldier gravestones of the Spanish-American War, which can be a difficult task due to budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“The VA gave a new rule that the stone must be broken or you must be the next of kin,” Wandel said. “It’s hard to find the next of kin for someone who died in the Civil War.”

Hiking through a graveyard might not seem like the cheeriest of ways to celebrate the Fourth of July, but Wanda Elliott, of Lawrence, said she joined the walking tour because she understood the gravity of the day and wanted to pay her respects.

“This is a good way to honor all of the veterans on this special day,” Elliott said.