The marker is located at the intersection of Main Street and Illinois Avenue (Rte. 51), Carbondale, IL.
On April 23, 1861, eleven days after Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, the cofounder of Carbondale, Daniel Harmon Brush, called a public meeting on this town square. Brush delivered a patriotic speech in support of the Union. Two days later, Brush stood atop his building on the southwest corner of Illinois Avenue and Main Street, waved the American flag, and dared Southern sympathizers to take it down. Brush’s two speeches during the opening days of the Civil War affirmed the region’s loyalty to the Union at a time when some in the area advocated secession or support of the South.
