Civil War Historic Sites

Connecticut and the Civil War 

Here are some Connecticut sites that have connections with the Civil War. They include the homes or graves of prominent persons, manufacturing sites that provided arms or other materials needed to prosecute the war, sites connected with the politics of the period, and monuments and memorials. There are many others of course; we encourage you to seek them out.  

Key: NR=National Register, NHL=National Historic Landmark and  * means that the site is open to the public. 

*Berlin/Kensington: Soldiers Monument Erected in 1863, while the war was still in progress, this was one of the first Civil War monuments in the country. The concept of monuments was new and there were few models for such structures; the brownstone obelisk is modeled after grave monuments of the period. 

Canton/Collinsville: Collins Axe Company (NR) A leading manufacturer of axes and other edge tools, Collins easily made the change to supplying knives and bayonets to the U.S. army. The company also made pikes that John Brown used in his attack on Harper’s Ferry.   

Cornwall/Cornwall Hollow: General John Sedgwick house (NR)A career military officer, Sedgwick was promoted to general early in the war and commanded divisions in the Peninsula Campaign and at Chancellorsville, Antietam, and Gettysburg before being killed at Spotsylvania Court House in 1864. Not far from his exuberant Italianate house stands a memorial designed by George Keller.  

Darien/Noroton Heights: Fitch’s Home for Soldiers and OrphansCaring for large numbers of wounded soldiers after the war presented a challenge on a scale Connecticut had never experienced. Fitch’s Home, opened in 1854, served as many as 500 veterans before being merged into the state veterans’ home in 1940. Not all the injuries were physical; some soldiers suffered mental trauma, known then as “soldier’s heart” and now as PTSD. In 1891, many of these were transferred to the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane in Middletown (now known as Connecticut Valley Hospital). Fitch’s Home was demolished in 1950 for veterans’ housing. Many of its residents were buried in the Veterans’ Cemetery in Noroton Heights where they are watched over by a memorial flagpole dedicated in 1936; the flagpole’s sculpted base depicts soldiers from several wars. Photo: D. Ransom 

Enfield/Hazardville: Hazard Powder Company (NR) One of three biggest suppliers of black powder, the Hazard company expanded during the war years to meet growing demand; today only a few buildings survive on Dust House Rd. Like a number of Connecticut manufacturers, Col. Augustus Hazard, who owned the company, had business contacts in the South and sympathized with the Southern cause.

Glastonbury: Gideon Welles house (NR)Welles (1802-1878) served as Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. He had no naval experience, but his organizational skills and background in shipbuilding made major contribution. By the end of the war, Welles had built the U.S. Navy into the world’s second-largest fleet.

Glastonbury: Connecticut Arms and Manufacturing CompanyKitchen utensils had been produced here before the war, but the present brick factory was built in 1863 for a manufacturer of rifles.

*Granby: Soldier’s Monument (NR) After the war, the demand for monuments sparked the development of a new business type. James G. Batterson, a Hartford stone supplier and contractor established what became a nationwide business. He employed his own architect (George Keller) and sculptors and produced major structures at Gettysburg and Antietam, as well as smaller, standardized designs found in many towns. Although Batterson was neither a sculptor nor a designer, Granby’s monument, erected in 1868, is signed with his name.

*Hartford: Old North Cemetery: Graves of 29th Regiment Colored Volunteers (NR)Formed in 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation authorized the recruitment of black soldiers, the 29th saw action in Petersburg and were among the first Union troops to enter Richmond after it fell. At least 26 members of the regiment received government issued headstones in this cemetery, but many have disappeared. African-American veterans from other units are also buried at Old North.

*Hartford, Old North Cemetery: Grave of Frederick Law Olmsted (NR)Better known as a pioneering landscape architect, Olmsted served as Secretary General of United States Sanitary Commission, a civilian-run organization that coordinated efforts to aid soldiers. It oversaw sanitary conditions in camps, hospitals, and transport; provided food and other supplies for the wounded; and assisted in the operation of soldiers’ homes. 

*Hartford: Barry SquareConnecticut troops camped here, on what was the edge of Hartford, before heading off to the war. A monument in the square commemorates Maj. Thomas McManus, a Hartford native who after the war organized veterans’ groups and reunions.  

Hartford: Colt Arms Company (NHL)Colt’s Patent Fire-arms Manufacturing Company signed the very first contract to produce rifles for the army, in July, 1861. The company remained a major armaments supplier throughout the war, surviving the death of its founder and a devastating fire that destroyed most of the original armory in 1864. Two wings survive from the Civil War era.

*Hartford: State Capitol (NR)The website Connecticut Monuments reports, “The State Capitol serves as a repository for Civil War memorabilia, thereby becoming itself almost a Civil War Memorial, although it is not included in this survey. Generals Joseph R. Hawley, Alfred Howe Terry, and John Sedgwick are represented by sculpted figures on the Capitol's facades.” Most affecting is the collection of battle flags, whose tatters tell vividly of the violence of battle. Photo: C. Wigren 

*Hartford, Bushnell Park: Soldiers and Sailors Monument (NR)Designed by Hartford architect George Keller and built between 1882 and 1886, the arch is an unusual combination of a classical triumphal arch with Gothic detailing. Among the statues is a rare depiction of freed slave, breaking the chains of bondage and holding a book that symbolizes education.  

*Hartford: Butler-McCook house (NR)Women played a crucial war in supporting soldiers in the field; they raised funds, collected and shipped supplies, and wrote letters that proved invaluable in maintaining morale. The Butler sisters of Hartford carried an extensive correspondence with their cousins, the Fighting McCooks of Ohio. In gratitude, the soldiers sent souvenirs to Hartford after the war, items that, along with many letters from the front, remain in the house, now a museum operated by Connecticut Landmarks.

*Hartland, East Hartland Cemetery: Banning and Rowe MonumentThis brownstone obelisk tells the poignant story of two soldiers from the same small town who survived capture only to die later of causes not related to battle--one of them only three days after he was exchanged.  

Litchfield: Josiah Gale Beckwith house (NR)Support for the war was far from universal, with opposition strongest in Fairfield and Litchfield counties. Resistance took many forms. Some Democratic-leaning doctors issued undeserved medical exemptions to draftees. Dr. Beckwith was one doctor suspected of doing so. The charges were never proved, but Beckwith’s reputation was permanently tarnished.  

*Madison: Allis-Bushnell house (NR)This was the birthplace of Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a railroad investor whom Gideon Welles (see Glastonbury) asked to help develop ironclad battleships for the Navy. Bushnell convinced the Swedish-born engineer John Ericsson to provide the plans for what would be the Monitor, which fought the CSS Virginia (originally named the Merrimack) in the world’s first-ever battle between two ironclads.

*Monroe: Stepney GreenOn August 24, 1861, a rally on the Stepney Green called for the North and South to negotiate a peace, and attendees raised a “peace flag.” Counter demonstrators, many brought in by train from Bridgeport, ripped down the flag and overwhelmed the gathering with their own rally. P. T. Barnum, one of the counter demonstrators’ leaders, was quoted in Bridgeport Daily Standard: “As good citizens we deprecate and utterly condemn these public exhibitions, falsely called 'peace meetings', that are really Secession demonstrations.”  

Stonington/Mystic: Clark, Thomas, and George Greenman housesBefore the war, the Greenman shipyard supplied ships to transport cotton from Southern fields to Northern textile mills. The shipyard quickly became a major supplier to the Union Navy. The Greenmans’ houses, along with employees’ houses and boarding house, are now part of Mystic Seaport. Another Mystic shipyard, Mallory’s, also constructed ships for the navy, including the USS Varuna.

*New Haven: Criscuolo ParkKnown in the 1860s as Grapevine Point, this piece of open land served as an encampment and training site for troops before shipping off to battle. Among the units that mustered here were the 29^th Regiment Colored Volunteers, commemorated by Connecticut’s newest Civil War monument, dedicated in 2008.

*New London: Fort Trumbull (NR) The Army recruited and trained troops at Fort Trumbull. The American Coast Artillery also manned the fort to protect New London harbor against Confederate attack, but none came.   

Norwich: William Buckingham house (NR) As governor from 1858 to 1866, Buckingham (1804-1875) led Connecticut through the war. His reelection in 1860, by a margin of only 541 votes, was a harbinger of Republican victories in the national election that brought Abraham Lincoln to office later that year. Buckingham and Lincoln campaigned for each other and developed a close relationship that ensured Connecticut’s strong support for the war despite opposition at home. The house later became a post of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization.

Norwich: Hopkins and Allen Firearms CompanyAlready a national leader, Connecticut’s armaments industry continued to expand throughout the war. This factory, built in 1862, housed the Union Machine Company and then the Norwich Arms Company, which produced rifle barrels and bayonets here (today it is known by the name of a later occupant). Rifle stocks and magazine locks were made at another facility, on the Shetucket River. Photo: Norwich Evening Record, 1894 

Putnam, Grove Street Cemetery: Grave of Thomas L. TaylorA black sailor in the U.S. Navy, Taylor served aboard the USS Monitor when it fought the CSS Virginia. Taylor died in 1932, the last survivor of that battle.  

*Torrington: John Brown Birthplace sitePerhaps the most famous abolitionist of the Civil War era and one of the most radical, Brown launched a raid on the U.S. arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, fueling Southerners’ fears of a slave revolt. Brown’s birthplace was restored as a museum in 1901 but burned in 1918; a granite monument marks the site.

*Vernon/Rockville: Memorial Building/Vernon Town Hall (NR) A few towns erected buildings as memorials to those who served in the war. Vernon’s town hall, built in 1889-1890, incorporated a memorial hall for the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans’ organization. The remarkably well preserved hall is now designated the New England Civil War Museum. Photo: W. Hosley 

Vernon/Rockville: Florence Mill (NR)The market for woolen cloth, primarily for military uniforms and blankets, expanded rapidly during the war. The Florence Mill was built in 1864 to take advantage of the increased demand. 

Windham/Willimantic: Willimantic Linen CompanyDespite its name, Willimantic Linen produced cotton thread. Management had anticipated the war and bought up large supplies of cotton before the fighting began. As a result, the company was able not only to keep operating but even to expand while many of its competitors were shut down for lack of raw materials. Mill 2 was constructed in 1864, in part to provide thread for the Union army.  

Much of the information in this article came from the Spring, 2011, issue of Connecticut Explored and from Matthew Warshauer’s Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice, and Survival. This article originally appeared in the November/December, 2011, issue of Connecticut Preservation News.  

If you want to know more... 

Connecticut and the Civil War, http://finalsite.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=2296: the official website of the state’s Civil War commemoration. 

Connecticut Explored, Spring, 2011. Connecticut for the Union: The Role of the State in the Civil War, by John Niven (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965).  

Connecticut History, Spring, 2011.  Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice, and Survival, by Matthew Warshauer (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2011). 

Connecticut’s Civil War Monuments, http://www.chs.org/finding_aides/ransom/overview1.htm.  

The Military and Civil History of Connecticut during the War of 1861-65, by William A. Croffut and Johh M. Morris (New York: Ledyard Bill, 1869), available on Google Books.  

New England Civil War Museum. http://www.newenglandcivilwarmuseum.com/.