Civil War encampment

Mathew Brady, 1st Connecticut artillery park encamped at the former quarters of the Louisiana Tigers, ca. 1862 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Civil War (1861-1865)

Some 55,000 Connecticut men served during the Civil War and, of those, roughly 10 percent lost their lives. Those troops were divided into 33 units including separate regiments of Irish American and African American men. On the home front, state industries gave the Union a strategic manufacturing advantage in arms, munitions, and other provisions. Women’s innovations included soldier’s aid societies, with Bridgeport’s being the nation’s first. The societies supplied essential items to troops and tended to the wounded and dead. This was not, however, a time of easy unity. Residents debated almost every aspect of the war and remained divided on the subject of African American rights. Today, over 130 monuments, including the oldest one in the north, mark the Civil War’s lasting imprint on the state.

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Photograph of soldiers with cannons, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery.

The Complicated Realities of Connecticut and the Civil War

The history of the Civil War surrounds Connecticut residents both in terms of its physical realities and in the lasting legacies of a complicated conflict. …[more]

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“Connecticut Militia, Friday, December 27, 1861 (Connecticut Militia Returns).” 1861. The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/mal1355900/ (April 7, 2012).
“Finding Aid to the Civil War Manuscripts Project.” 2017. Connecticut Historical Society. http://www.chs.org/finding_aides/kcwmp/cwab.htm (September 5, 2014).
Connecticut. 2017. “Connecticut Men in the Civil War.” http://www.ct.gov/mil/cwp/view.asp?a=1351&q=270354.
“Research Guide to Civil War Materials.” 2017. Connecticut State Library. http://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/ld.php?content_id=8214201.
The Story of the Twenty-First Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, During the Civil War. 1861-1865. 1900. Middletown, CT: Stewart Printing Co. https://archive.org/stream/00544322.3071.emory.edu/00544322_3071#page/n5/mode/2up.
Warner, Ezra J. 1858. “Patent Number 19,063 - Can Opener.” https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US19063.pdf.
“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.
Warshauer, Matthew. 2014. Inside Connecticut and the Civil War: Essays on One State’s Struggles. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
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Spencer, J. Ronald, ed. 2014. A Connecticut Yankee in Lincoln’s Cabinet: Navy Secretary Gideon Welles Chronicles the Civil War. Hartford, CT: The Acorn Club.
Connecticut. Adjutant-General’s Office. 1862. Catalogue of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Regiments of Infantry, First Light Battery, and First Battalion of Cavalry, Connecticut Volunteers, 1861. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Co. http://archive.org/details/catalogueof6th7t00conn (September 5, 2014).
Banks, John. 2013. Connecticut Yankees at Antietam. Charleston  SC: The History Press.
Croffut, W. 1868. The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65. New York, NY: Ledyard Bill. http://www.archive.org/stream/militarycivilhis00incrof#page/n9/mode/2up.
Richards, T. Addison. 1864. “The Norwich Arms.” In Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, ed. Henry Mills Alden. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 450–65. http://books.google.com/books?id=zCwZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA450#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Warshauer, Matthew. 2011. Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice, and Survival. Middletown,  CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Connecticut. Adjutant-General’s Office. 1864. Catalogue of Connecticut Volunteer Organizations, with Additional Enlistments and Casualties to July 1, 1864. Hartford: Case,  Lockwood and Company. http://www.archive.org/stream/catalogueofconne00conn#page/n5/mode/2up.
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.
Connecticut. 1889. Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Army and Navy of the United States During the War of the Rebellion. Hartford,  CT: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company.
Soldiers’ Hospital. 1890. Rules and Regulations of the Soldiers’ Hospital at Fitch’s Soldiers’ Home, Noroton Heights, Connecticut. Hartford,  CT: Case,  Lockwood & Brainard Company.
Connecticut African American Soldiers in the Civil War, 1861-1865. 2000. State of Connecticut - Historical Commission. http://www.ctfreedomtrail.org/data/files/resource-library/reports/CT-African-American-Soldiers-in-the-Civil-War.pdf.