For many local residents and recently returned veterans, Bloomington's July 4, 1866, gathering marked the true end of the Civil War. A crowd estimated at 8,000 gathered at Dimmitt's Grove on the city's southeast side for an afternoon of speechmaking and picnicking.

"On but few occasions have we seen more people in this city," remarked The Pantagraph.

Although the previous Fourth of July occurred three months after Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Va., many local soldiers remained stationed in the Deep South, participating in mop-up operations, garrison duty and the like. Now, a year later, most were back home.

The local arrangements committee planned an ambitious "Grand Patriotic Rally" at Dimmitt's Grove, the only well-shaded place large enough to hold the expected crowds. Yet for reasons unknown, the two keynote speakers (John M. Palmer and John A. Logan, two of Illinois' more celebrated "political generals") spent their Independence Day elsewhere.

Furthermore, there was little evidence of the martial ardor and fiery patriotism that would mark subsequent Independence Day celebrations. Instead, there was a general sense of war weariness, as veterans demonstrated no enthusiasm for parading in uniform or staging faux skirmishes. Perhaps memories of the past four years were too recent in the mind's eye for such games.

Some 700 McLean County men died in service to the Union cause, a remarkable number when one considers that the county's pre-war population was probably around 30,000.

In proportional terms, given the county's current population of 165,000, that number today would be more like 3,800 dead.

The Bloomington celebration began with Kadel's Silver Cornet Band marching from the courthouse square to Dimmitt's Grove. The speaker's platform, situated in a "beautiful clump of trees," featured portraits of statesmen and generals, including a life-size of Abraham Lincoln painted by Louis O. Lussier, a well-regarded artist then living in Peoria.

The crowd swelled with the ranks of out-of-towners.

Both railroads serving Bloomington, the Illinois Central and the Chicago & Alton, ran "excursion" trains to bring rural folk into the city.

Despite advertised promises, Union veterans did not march in uniform or stage drills and target practice. "It seems they preferred to keep cool, and had little fancy for giving a set of officers an excuse to wear uniforms, sashes and swords," commented The Pantagraph.

Speakers included John M. Scott, who, four years earlier, had replaced David Davis as judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Davis left Bloomington for Washington, D.C., and a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Scott, too, was no slouch, as he would go on to become the first Illinoisan by birth to sit on the Illinois Supreme Court.

From the Dimmitt's Grove platform, Scott spoke for an hour before the 4,000 within hearing distance, and though The Pantagraph provided no substantive details of the "elegant oration," the paper called it "the best effort of his life."

Much like today, firecrackers-especially those in the hands of young boys-were a nerve-wracking nuisance. "Every street was a dangerous passage, and the fronts of half the houses in the city were terrors to timid men, and all women," reported the local press."Horses were continually taking fright, and it was a wonder that no more persons were seriously injured from the careless use of powder."

That evening, crowds gathered at the Courthouse Square to watch the city's $75 (or more than $1,100 today, adjusted for inflation) fireworks display.

Although "whiskey shops" and "rum-sellers" were banned from Dimmitt's Grove, there were ample opportunities to imbibe elsewhere. "By four o'clock, many a youth or tough soaker, or old soldier, was patriotically drunk," stated The Pantagraph. "The eight or ten special police, with the whole force of old hands, were kept constantly busy stopping disturbances."

A dozen or so men were arrested during the long day. "By ten o'clock at night the amount of fighting was absolutely disgraceful," the paper added, "and if we are to have such scenes re-enacted, we hope the Fourth of July will not come oftener than once a year."