[SlideDeck2 id=42806 iframe=1]Officials stationed the statue of the
Forlorn Soldier on Airport Road in Hartford’s South End for over 45 years—having moved it from Charter Oak Avenue in the spring of 1968. There it stood amidst an industrial, urban backdrop. On July 19, 2013, the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission held a ceremony to honor another relocation of the statue. Before being lifted onto a truck, a color guard of
Civil War reenactors honored the
Forlorn Soldier. Peter G. Kelly and several of his family members attended and Tom Callinan, Connecticut’s former state troubadour, performed an original song dedicated to the
Forlorn Soldier. The Mariano Brothers Specialty Movers used a crane to set the statue onto a truck bed. From that location they transported the
Forlorn Soldier to ConservArt in
Hamden, Connecticut. Francis Miller, the proprietor of ConservArt, worked over the next two months to stabilize the statue and repair previous restoration attempts before its final move to the
Connecticut State Capitol.
Anthony Roy is a regional historian and social studies teacher at Connecticut River Academy whose work related to the Forlorn Soldier was completed as a part of his candidacy for a master’s in public history from Central Connecticut State University and as a part of the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission’s efforts to study and inspire awareness of the American Civil War and Connecticut’s involvement in it.
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