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. 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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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]
[Archived] The Complicated Realities of Connecticut and the Civil War
Citizens’ dedication on the battlefield and home front did not always signal agreement on key issues of the day. …[more]
