Connecticut 29th Mustered into Service – Today in History: March 8
March 8, 2015 • Civil War, War and Defense, Updated
Commissary Sergeant 29th Regiment

Alexander H. Newtown, Commissary Sergeant, 29th Regiment from his 1910 memoir Out of the Briars: An Autobiography and Sketch of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers - Library of Congress. Used through Public Domain.


Unnamed soldier from the 29th Regiment

Ambrotype of unnamed soldier from the 29th Regiment – Stamford Historical Society. Used through Public Domain.

Last Updated: January 7, 2025

On March 8, 1864, the state’s first African American regiment, the Connecticut Twenty-Ninth (Colored) Regiment, C.V. Infantry, mustered into service to fight for the Union’s cause in the Civil War. The United States government allowed African American soldiers to enlist starting in July 1862, but only in separate Black regiments. The official call “for recruiting colored volunteers” came the following November under Connecticut Adjutant General’s General Orders No. 17. Most of the men joined the regiment in the last three months of the year when the volunteers were encamped in the Fair Haven section of New Haven. By January 1864, more than 1,200 men had enlisted and the regiment had met the quota for the number of recruits necessary to form a regiment.

This article has been updated, learn more about content updating on ConnecticutHistory.org here.

 

  • Writer:
    CTH Staff

  • Town(s):
    New Haven

Learn More

“29th Colored Regiment Monument.” 2017. Connecticut Freedom Trail. https://ctfreedomtrail.org/connecticut-freedom-trail-sites/29th-colored-regiment-monument/.
“Broadside - Twenty-Ninth Regiment, Conn. Volunteer Infantry (Colored).” 1880. https://cslib.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4005coll11/id/7.
“29th Regiment Connecticut Infantry (Colored).” 2017. National Park Service - Richmond National Battlefield Park. http://www.nps.gov/rich/historyculture/29th-conn.htm.
“Muster Roll of Captain James C. Sweetland, Company a, of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment of Conn. Infantry Vols. (Colored), 1864.” 1864. http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:21148.
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office. 1863. “War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops (1863).” http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=35.
Newton, A. H. 1910. Out of the Briars: An Autobiography and Sketch of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. Philadelphia, PA: A.M.E. Book Concern. http://www.archive.org/stream/outofbriarsauto00newt#page/n7/mode/2up (February 17, 2012).
Hill, Isaac. 1881. A Sketch of the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Troops Giving a Full Account of Its Formation, of All the Battles Through Which It Passed, and Its Final Disbandment. New York, NY: Baker & Godwin  Printers. http://www.archive.org/stream/sketchof29thregi00hill#page/n1/mode/2up.

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