For the last few years, countless volunteers, members of the community and the Low family have brought U.S. history back to life with the annual Niles-Brandywine Civil War Re-Enactment event.

Now in its fifth year, the event, being held Saturday and Sunday May 14 and 15, is highlighting some of Niles’ own history as well.

Hosted along with the 1st Michigan Infantry and the 2nd Kentucky Morgan’s Artillery, this year’s re-enactment will feature the Battle of Shiloh.

It is a battle that included the 12th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry, organized in Niles by the city’s own Colonel Francis Quinn.

“The thing about the battle of Shiloh is there was (the 12th Regiment) that actually trained in Niles. They actually trained near where Martin’s Supermarket currently stands and they were all involved in the battle,” said Andrew Low.

This is the first time, Low added, that the group has really dug into the details of the battle, because of its local roots.

“Before we never really put out there what the battle was,” Low said. “We never really put the title out there. But this year we did, because it does have that significance to the Niles community.”

According to a provided timeline and history on the regiment, the volunteer infantry originated in 1861, recruiting and training soldiers in Niles, Dowagiac and Buchanan.

It was in 1862 that those soldiers, an enrollment of 1,000, left the state, ultimately arriving in Tennessee under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant.

Low is hoping the historical significance to the area will bring in more spectators to the two-day event.

A new addition to the line-up of events this year is a “Friends of Silverbrook” Cemetery Tour on Saturday.

Brandywine High School teacher and adviser of the school’s history club, David Roeder said several students will be helping out during each of the two tours, which he said will be given at 6 and 7 p.m.

“(The tour) will highlight some of the more notable (veterans),” Roeder said, estimating more than 1,000 Civil War veterans buried in Silverbrook Cemetery.

Re-enactors will embody those veterans highlighted on the tour while students will act as guides, Roeder said.

Among those highlighted: Col. Francis Quinn, the Rev. Joseph Phillips a minister of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Niles in 1858; Lt. Col. David Bacon, an attorney who was seriously wounded at the battle of Baton Rouge; and slave turned soldier Pvt. Julius Caesar who was also present at the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Around 20 notable veterans in all will be a part of the tour.

Roeder said the history club and Friends of Silverbrook had worked together on projects in the past and when they came up with the idea of a cemetery tour, they ran with it.

For more information on the re-enactment and the events taking place this weekend, visit www.nilesbrandywinecivilwar. com.