USA > Connecticut > The county regiment; a sketch of the Second regiment of Connecticut volunteer heavy artillery, originally the Nineteenth volunteer infantry, in the civil war > Part 4
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camp, and the Johnnies are whipped all to pieces.' "
The victory was as complete and satisfying as it was spectacular; the enemy was at last so thoroughly beaten that a dangerous attitude could not be taken again. It was a fitting close for Sheridan's famous campaign in the Shenan- doah Valley.
To the Second Connecticut the day at Cedar Creek brought losses nearly as heavy as were suffered at Winchester just a month before: thirty-eight killed, ninety-six wounded, and two missing, besides a large number made pris- oners,-an entire company having been cap- tured early in the morning while on picket,-of whom eleven died in captivity. These losses were in fact proportionately even larger than those met with at Cold Harbor, as the hard service of the preceding months had reduced the regiment's effective strength to about twenty-five officers and seven hundred men present for duty.
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ENERAL SHERIDAN's report on the Shenandoah campaign gave high praise to Colonel Mackenzie, who, as a result of his conduct, received a promotion and was commis- sioned brigadier-general in December. His dis- ability from the two wounds received at Cedar Creek, however, necessitated his relinquishing the command of the regiment immediately after that engagement, and this devolved upon Lieu- tenant-Colonel James Hubbard; to him in due course came the colonel's commission, and he led the regiment throughout the rest of its career.
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Colonel Mackenzie
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Colonel Hubbard, though born in Salisbury, had lived in the West before the war, and first saw service with an Illinois regiment. Return- ing to Connecticut, he assisted in raising a com- pany for the Nineteenth, and was mustered in as its captain. He was steadily promoted until the death of Colonel Kellogg brought him natu- rally to the command of the regiment; but, as has been said, his own modest estimate of his qualifications for this responsibility caused him to decline the appointment. When it came to him a second time he accepted, and proved by his subsequent handling of the regiment a worthy successor to the remarkably able soldiers under whom he had served, winning the brevet rank of brigadier-general in the final campaigns. His ambition was, a comrade wrote, to do his full duty without a thought for personal glory; and he enjoyed in a high degree the respect and affection of his command. He died in Washington, where he lived for many years, on December 21, 1886, and was buried in Winsted.
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THE brilliant victories in which the Second Artillery had borne so worthy a part, and the re-election of President Lincoln in November (1864) , put an end to all anxieties as to danger in the quarter of the Shenandoah, which before Sheridan's campaign had been a region of fatal mischance to the national cause from the begin- ning of the war. As a consequence the Sixth Corps was once more ordered to rejoin Grant's army, and the regiment left the historic valley on December 1st, arriving on the 5th before Petersburg, where it was assigned a position near the place of its skirmish on June 22nd.
"Then it was unbroken forest," says its his- tory; "now, hundreds of acres were cleared, and dotted with camps. A corduroy road ran by, and a telegraph, and Grant's railroad. No other such railroad was ever seen before, or ever will be again. It was laid right on top of the ground, without any attempt at grading, and you might see the engine and rear car of a long train, while the middle of the train would be in a valley, completely out of sight. Having
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reached Parke Station, we moved to a camp near Battery Number Twenty-seven, and went into the snug and elegant little log houses just vacated by the Ninety-fourth New York. This was a new kind of situation for the 'Second Heavies.' The idea of being behind perma- nent and powerful breastworks, defended by abatis, ditches, and what not, with approaches so difficult that ten men could hold five hundred at bay, was so novel, that the men actually felt as if there must be some mistake, and that they had got into the wrong place."
FOR two months no fighting fell to the regi- ment's lot, for though the Union commanders and armies were ready and eager to make an end of the war as soon as possible, little could be done during the winter. Though this inac- tivity brought perhaps some relief from the rigors of army life, the men had numerous re- minders that they were still in active service. One of the chief events of this season the his- tory of the regiment describes as follows : "On
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the afternoon of the 9th (December, 1864), the First and Third Divisions of the Sixth Corps were marched to the left, beyond the permanent lines, and off in the direction of the Weldon Railroad, to prevent any attack on the Fifth and Second Corps, now returning from their expedition. After going for about six miles we halted for the night, in a piece of woods. It was bitter cold when we left camp, but soon be- gan to moderate, then to rain, then to sleet; so that by the time we halted, everything was cov- ered with ice, with snow two inches deep on the ground, and still sifting down through the pines. It was the work of an hour to get fires going,-but at last they began to take hold, and fuel was piled on as though it did not cost any- thing. Clouds of steam rolled out of the soaked garments of the men, as they stood huddled around the roaring, cracking piles,-and the black night and ghostly woods were lighted up in a style most wonderful. The storm con- tinued all night, and many a man waked up next morning to find his legs firmly packed in
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new fallen snow. At daylight orders came to pack up and be ready to move at once; which was now a difficult order to execute, on account of many things, especially the shelter tents ;- for they were as rigid as sheet-iron and yet had to be rolled up and strapped on the knapsacks. Nevertheless it was not long before the regi- ment was in motion ; and after plodding off for a mile to the left, a line of battle was formed, vedettes sent out, trees felled and breastworks built, and at dinner-time the men were allowed to build fires and cook breakfast. Then, after standing until almost night in the snow, which had now turned to sleet, the column was headed homeward. Upon arriving, it was discovered that some of the Jersey Brigade had taken pos- session of our log snuggeries, and that their officers had established their heels upon the mantels in our officers' quarters, and were smok- ing the pipes of comfort and complacency, as though they had not a trouble in the world, and never expected to have. But they soon found that possession is not nine points of military
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law, by any means. An order from Division Headquarters soon sent them profanely pack- ing,-and the Second Heavies occupied."
Though weeks were spent in such compara- tive comfort and immunity as the present situ- ation afforded, the men felt as if they were rest- ing over a volcano which might break into fierce activity at any moment; and as the winter passed signs of the renewal of the struggle mul- tiplied on all sides.
On February 5th (1865), part of the Second Connecticut was ordered to move out to support and protect the flank of the Fifth Corps, which was engaged near Hatcher's Run, and accord- ingly left the comforts of the camp and bivou- acked for the night a few miles away. The history of the regiment says : "It was bitter cold sleeping that night-so cold that half the men stood or sat around fires all night. In the morning the movement was continued. A little before sun- down we crossed Hatcher's Run and moved by the flank directly into a piece of woods, the Second Brigade under Hubbard leading the
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division and the Second Connecticut under Skinner leading the brigade. Wounded men were being brought to the rear and the noise just ahead told of mischief there. Colonel Hubbard filed to the left at the head of the col- umn along a slight ridge and about half the regiment had filed when troops of the Fifth Corps came running through to the rear and at the same moment General Wheaton rode up with 'oblique to the left, oblique to the left,' and making energetic gestures toward the rise of ground. The ridge was quickly gained and fire opened just in time to head off a counter fire and charge that was already in progress, but be- tween the 'file left' and the 'left oblique' and the breaking of our ranks by troops retreating from in front, and the vines and underbrush (which were so thick that they unhorsed some of the staff officers) there was a good deal of con- fusion, and the line soon fell back about ten rods, where it was reformed and a vigorous fire poured-somewhat at random-a little to the left of our first position. The attempt of the
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enemy to get in on the left of the Fifth Corps was frustrated. Our casualties were six wounded (some of them probably by our own men) and one missing. The position was occu- pied that night, and the next day until about sundown, when the brigade shifted some dis- tance to the right and again advanced under an artillery fire to within a short distance of the rebel batteries and built breastworks. The rebel picket shots whistled overhead all the time the breastworks were building, but mostly too high to hurt anything but the trees. At mid- night the division moved back to quarters, ar- riving at sunrise. Having taken a ration of whiskey which was ordered by Grant or some- body else in consideration of three nights and two days on the bare ground in February, to- gether with some fighting and a good deal of hard marching and hard work, the men lay down to sleep as the sun rose up, and did not rise up until the sun went down."
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Colonel Hubbard
HE routine of picket duty, inspec- tion, alarms, and orders to be in readiness which came not infre- quently, continued for another succession of weeks, varied now by the constant arrival of deserters from the enemy, who were coming into the Union lines singly and in large parties almost daily, and re- vealing the desperate condition on the other side. Preparations went on for what all felt was to be the final campaign; and this opened for the Second Connecticut on March 25th, when the famous assault on Fort Stedman was made by the enemy, Lee's last attempt at offen- sive operations.
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This position, which was on the eastern side of the city of Petersburg, was gallantly attacked and captured in the early morning; troops were at once called from all parts of the Union line and hurried to the point of action, but the fort was retaken before the Second Connecticut reached the scene, and the regiment was then moved to the southwest of the city before Fort Fisher, a general assault of the whole extensive line having been ordered by Grant to develop the weakness that Lee must have been obliged to make somewhere to carry out his plan against Fort Stedman. The attack succeeded in gain- ing and holding a large share of the Confederate picket line, a matter of great importance.
The Second Connecticut advanced to the charge late in the afternoon "as steadily as though on a battalion drill," the regimental his- tory relates. It captured a line of rifle pits and kept on "under a combined artillery and musket fire. The air was blue with the little cast iron balls from spherical-case shot which shaved the ground and exploded among the stumps just in
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rear of the line at intervals of only a few sec- onds. Twenty of the Second Connecticut were wounded-seven of them mortally-in reach- ing, occupying, and abandoning this position, which, proving entirely untenable, was held only a few minutes. The line faced about and moved back under the same mixed fire of solid shot, spherical case, and musketry, and halted not far in front of the spot whence it had first moved forward. Other troops on the right now engaged the battery and captured the rest of the picket line, and after half an hour the brigade again moved forward to a position still further advanced than the previous one, where a permanent picket line was established."
The week following this eventful day, which began with the capture of one of the Union works, and ended with substantial gains along their front, saw intense activity on all sides. The abandonment of Petersburg by Lee was now plainly imminent, and the preventing of his army's escape was the paramount object. The whole vast field of operation about the
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besieged city became a seething theater of complicated movement, and the Second Con- necticut, under frequent orders for immediate advance, was formed in line at all hours of the day or night, and excited by a thousand rumors and orders given and revoked, but it did not finally leave its quarters during this time.
On April 1st, Sheridan won his notable vic- tory at Five Forks, and at midnight the regi- ment was ordered out for a final charge on the defences so long held against them, which was to be made early on the 2nd. All was made ready, the lines formed, and at daylight the signal gun set the army in motion.
"The advance was over precisely the same ground as on the 25th of March, and the firing came from the same battery and breast- works, although not quite so severe. Lieutenant- Colonel Skinner and seven enlisted men were wounded-none of them fatally. y. There was but little firing on our side, but with bayonets fixed the boys went in,-not in a very mathe-
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matical right line, but strongly and surely,-on, on, until the first line was carried. Then, in- vigorated and greatly encouraged by success, they pressed on-the opposing fire slackening every minute,-on, on, through the abatis and ditch, up the steep bank, over the parapet into the rebel camp that had but just been deserted. Then and there the long tried and ever faithful soldiers of the Republic saw day- light-and such a shout as tore the concave of that morning sky it were worth dying to hear." The same jubilant success was attend- ing the whole army, though not without sharp resistance on the part of the enemy in places.
Throughout the day advances were made and the works so long besieged were occupied all over the vast field, and at night the men "lay down in muddy trenches, among the dying and the dead, under a most murderous fire of sharp- shooters. There had been charges and counter charges,-but our troops held all they had gained. At length the hot day gave place to
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chilly night, and the extreme change brought much suffering. The men had flung away what- ever was fling-away-able during the charge of the morning and the subsequent hot march-as men always will, under like circumstances- and now they found themselves blanketless, stockingless, overcoatless,-in cold and damp trenches, and compelled by the steady firing to lie still, or adopt a horizontal, crawling mode of locomotion, which did not admit of speed enough to quicken the circulation of the blood. Some took clothing from the dead and wrapped themselves in it; others, who were fortunate enough to procure spades, dug gopher holes, and burrowed. At daylight the Sixty-fifth New York clambered over the huge earthwork, took possession of Fort Hell, opened a picket fire and fired one of the guns in the fort, eliciting no reply. Just then a huge fire in the direction of the city, followed by several explosions, con- vinced our side that Lee's army had indeed left. The regiment was hastily got together,-ninety muskets being all that could be produced,-and
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sent out on picket. The picket line advanced and meeting with no resistance pushed on into the city. What regiment was first to enter the city is and probably ever will be a disputed question. The Second Connecticut claims to have been in first, but Colonel Hubbard had or- dered the colors to remain behind when the regi- ment went out on the skirmish line, consequently the stars and stripes that first floated over cap- tured Petersburg belonged to some other regi- ment. Colonel Hubbard was, however, made Provost-Marshal of the city, and for a brief while dispensed government and law in that capacity."
Petersburg, however, now that it was aban- doned by the enemy, had lost the importance it had so long possessed, and all energies were given to preventing the escape of its late de- fenders. Before the end of the day (April 3d) the regiment, with the rest of the Sixth Corps, had turned westward and joined the pursuit. The chase was stern and the marches rapid, but far less wearing to these victorious veterans,
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filled with the consciousness of success, than those that had initiated their campaigning less than a year before. On April 6th the regiment, after an all day march, came up with the enemy in position at Sailor's Creek, and went into the last engagement of its career. It was a charge under a hot fire, sharp and decisive, which quickly changed to a pursuit of the fleeing enemy, kept up until the bivouack at ten o'clock. The Second Connecticut captured the headquarters train of General Mahone, a battle flag, and many prisoners, and ended the tale of its losses with three men killed and six wounded.
The chase was taken up next morning (April 7th) , and the regiment had reached a point close to Appomattox Court House, when on April 9th Lee met Grant and surrendered what remained of his army, at that historic place.
To imagine all that this meant to the men in arms is far easier than to attempt its descrip- tion. They saw at last the end arriving of all
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the privation and suffering they had volun- teered to undergo; they saw the triumph of the Union they had risen to defend to the uttermost extremity a proven fact. The whole continent vibrated with the deepest feeling at the news of it, but they, better than any others, knew in the fullest degree its immense significance.
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MMEDIATELY after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Sixth Corps was moved to Burkesville, some distance from Appomattox in the direction of Richmond, and there it remained for about ten days awaiting events. On April 22nd it was ordered southward to Danville, with a view to joining Sherman's army then confronting Johnston in North Carolina, a movement which again necessitated some fatiguing marches, the one hundred and five miles being covered in less than five days. News was received, however, that Johnston had followed the example of Lee and surrendered,
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and the corps thereupon faced about once more. On its leisurely progress to the north it was joined by crowds of the newly freed negroes, who attached themselves to every regiment in droves, and the lately hostile inhabitants came also at every stopping place, "with baskets and two-wheeled carts" for supplies to relieve their dire necessities.
Near Richmond the regiment remained sev- eral days, and the men were allowed passes to visit the late Confederate capital, so long the goal of their strenuous efforts. "The burnt dis- trict was still smoking with the remains of the great fire of April 2nd, and the city was full of officers and soldiers of the ex-Confederate army. The blue and the gray mingled on the streets and public squares, and were seen side by side in the Sabbath congregations. The war was over."
The consciousness of this last great fact was now becoming insistent in the minds of these citizen soldiers. The great purpose for which they had offered themselves was carried out, and their eagerness to have done with all the circum-
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stances of military life was increasingly strong, and grew so intense as to render the final weeks of their term of service extremely trying.
The tremendous task of disbanding the armies of the Union was occupying the entire energies of the War Department, but to the men it seemed as if their longed for turn would never come. Back in the well-known fortifications around Washington they waited, taking part in the Grand Review on June 8th, in all the misery of full dress, and in a temper that would have carried them against the thousands of acclaim- ing spectators with savage joy, had it been a host of enemies in arms.
But their turn came at last, and on July 7th, one hundred and eighty-three men, all that were left of the original enlisted men of the "old Nineteenth," were mustered out; two days later they departed for New Haven and were wel- comed there, like all the returning troops, with patriotic rejoicing.
The remainder of the regiment, some four hundred in number, was mustered out in its
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turn on August 18th, reached New Haven on the 20th, and "passed up Chapel Street amid welcoming crowds of people, the clangor of bells, and a shower of rockets and red lights that made the field-and-staff horses prance with the belief that battle had come again. After partak- ing of a bounteous entertainment prepared in the basement of the State House, the regiment proceeded to Grapevine Point, where, on the 5th of September, they received their pay and dis- charge, and the Second Connecticut Heavy Artil- lery vanished from sight and passedinto History."
IN Litchfield County the return of the various contingents to their homes was made the occa- sion of great rejoicing. Chief among these cele- brations was a grand reception at the county seat on August 1st, when the first detachment to be discharged had arrived; they were fêted with dinner and speeches, illuminations and a triumphal arch. There were also other organ- ized demonstrations in other towns, and every- where the strongest manifestations of pride in
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these warrior sons of the county, and joy at their return.
But all who went had not returned. The ter- rible significance of the cold and formal col- umns and tables of the regiment's casualties was felt in every town, and to their tale was added in succeeding years a long list of the many who had indeed come back, but broken with wounds and disease, and just as truly devoted to death through their service as those who fell upon the field of battle.
What the Second Connecticut suffered is shown, so far as official statistics go, in the tables published by the Adjutant-General of the state, as follows :
Killed
. 147
Missing in action, probably killed 11
Fatally wounded
95
Wounded · 427
Captured 72
Died in prison
21
Died of disease or accident
. 154
Discharged for disability 285
Unaccounted for at muster out
· 35
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ARLINGTON
Monument at Arlington
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The officers of the regiment as mustered out were: Colonel, James Hubbard, Salisbury; lieutenant-colonel, Jeffrey Skinner, Winches- ter; majors, Edward W. Jones, New Hartford; Augustus H. Fenn, Plymouth; Chester D. Cleveland, Barkhamsted; adjutant, Theodore F. Vaill, Litchfield; quartermaster, Edward C. Huxley, Goshen ; surgeon, Henry Plumb, New Milford; assistant surgeons, Robert G. Haz- zard, New Haven; Judson B. Andrews, New Haven; chaplain, Winthrop H. Phelps, Bark- hamsted.
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HE preceding pages have outlined the career of the Second Connec- ticut Heavy Artillery, and have narrated some of the more mem- orable events of its history. Enough has been told of what it did to furnish grounds for deducing what it was; but to deal with the regiment on the personal side is hardly possible within the limits of such a sketch as this, though it is a matter that cannot be entirely passed by. It need not be said that there is abundant human interest attaching as a matter of course to such men as were in the aggregate the subjects of so fine a record.
Any body of men-a college class, a legisla- 2
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ture, a regiment-is in character what its com- ponent members make it; in this case there was the material, which, furnished with worthy leadership-and it unquestionably had that- made up the organization whose not uneventful existence has been described. That they were better men, or worse, braver men, or more patri- otic, than their descendants and successors would prove under similar conditions, or than the hundreds of thousands of their contempo- raries who devoted themselves to the same ser- vice, is not to be believed; yet to have passed through such experiences as have been re- counted, which became for them for a time the commonplaces of every-day life, is enough to place them apart from ordinary men in the eyes of our peace knowing generation. In fact, to have passed the tests of so fierce a course of edu- cation gives them a title to a place thus apart. The university man of to-day, as the burden of the baccalaureate sermons so frequently tes- tifies, is consigned to a special place of responsi- bility in life because of his training; these men
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surely earned one of special honor by reason of theirs, which was, too, not like the other, prepa- ration alone, but also fulfilment. The realiza- tion of how typical it all was of that generation and that time, brings the clearest understanding of the real scope of the Civil War.
To the members of the Litchfield County Uni- versity Club it is perhaps a point of interest to take brief notice of those names on the regi- mental rolls which would probably have been found upon its list of members had the organi- zation been in existence in that earlier time. A number of the officers and men were college graduates when they enlisted, and others gained degrees after the war ended; the list which fol- lows is, however, necessarily incomplete; in fact, an absolutely correct list is no doubt hope- lessly impossible.
Major James Q. Rice, who was killed at Win- chester, was a member of the class of 1850 at Wesleyan, and received from that institution the degree of Master of Arts in 1855. At the
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time of the regiment's formation he was con- ducting an academy in Goshen, and was en- listed as captain of a company which he had been active in recruiting.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nathaniel Smith of Woodbury entered the Yale Law School in the class of 1853, but did not graduate. Ill health forced him to relinquish his commission early in 1864, and until his death in 1877 he was a leading citizen of the county.
Judge Augustus H. Fenn, Major and Brevet- Colonel, came back from the war, having lost an arm at Cedar Creek, to take a course in the Law School at Harvard, and Yale made him a Master of Arts in 1889. His prominence for many years in public life and as judge in the highest courts in the state is well known. At the time of his death in 1897, he was a lecturer in the Yale Law School, and member of the Supreme Court of Errors.
Rev. James Deane, Captain and Brevet- Major, was a graduate of Williams in the class of 1857. He was pastor of the Congregational
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church at East Canaan when the regiment was organized, and was one of its recruiting officers.
Adjutant Theodore F. Vaill, the historian of the regiment, was a student before the war at Union College, but did not graduate.
Captain George S. Williams, of New Mil- ford, was a member of the class of 1852 at Yale for a time, and received a degree from Trinity in 1855.
Surgeon Henry Plumb, and Assistant-Sur- geons Robert G. Hazzard and John W. Lawton were all graduates of the Yale Medical School, in the classes of 1861, 1862, and 1859. Assist- ant-Surgeon Judson B. Andrews graduated at Yale in 1855. He was captain in a New York regiment in the early part of the war, and be- came afterward superintendent of the Buffalo State Hospital, and a recognized authority on insanity before his death in 1894.
Chaplain Jonathan A. Wainwright gradu- ated at the University of Vermont in 1846, and after the war was for some years rector of St. John's Church in Salisbury. He was later con-
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nected with a church college in Missouri, where he died in 1898.
Captain William H. Lewis, Jr., studied after the war at the Berkeley Divinity School, and has been for many years rector of St. John's Church in Bridgeport.
Lieutenant and Brevet-Captain Lewis W. Munger, graduating at Brown in 1869 and later from the Crozier Theological Seminary, entered the ministry of the Baptist church.
Corporal Francis J. Young entered the Yale Medical School before the war, and returned after its close to take his degree in 1866.
Hospital Steward James J. Averill also grad- uated at the Yale Medical School after the war.
Sergeant Theodore C. Glazier was a graduate of Trinity in the class of 1860, and was a tutor there when he enlisted. He was later made colonel of a colored regiment, and served with credit in that capacity.
Corporal Edward C. Hopson, a graduate of Trinity in 1864, was killed at Cedar Creek.
Sergeant Garwood R. Merwin, who had been
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a member of the class of 1864 at Yale, died at Alexandria in 1863.
Sergeant Romulus C. Loveridge, who had been entered in the class of 1865 at Yale, re- ceived a commission in a colored regiment.
Colonel Mackenzie graduated at West Point in 1862, but he was never a resident of the county, or of Connecticut, and his only connec- tion with either was through his commission from Governor Buckingham.
There are not a few other names upon the rolls of the regiment which upon more thorough investigation than has been possible in the present case would certainly be added to the list. A complete history of the organization would also give a large place to the association of its veterans formed shortly after the war, whose frequent gatherings have more than a superficial likeness to the reunions of college classes. Memorable among these meetings was the one held on October 21, 1896, the occasion being the dedication of the regiment's monu- ment in the National Cemetery at Arlington,
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with a pilgrimage also to the scenes of its battles and marches in the Shenandoah Valley near by.
As a whole, the regiment was a body thor- oughly representative not only of the army of which it was a fraction, an army as has been often said unlike any other the world has known, but also of the population from which it was drawn. It was made up of men of almost all conditions of life and of widely different ages, though naturally with young men in a large majority; of mechanics from the Housa- tonic and Naugatuck valleys, and farmers' boys from the hills; of men of education and men of none. Though the large addition to its num- bers which the increase in size necessitated made it perhaps somewhat less homogeneous than at first, it did not greatly alter its essential charac- teristics.
The records kept by the association referred to, furnish suggestive revelations as to the various elements that composed it. The names of men of every sort and kind are found upon the rolls. There were veterans of the Mexican
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War; there were refugees from the revolution- ary uprisings in Europe of 1848; there were some who had served under compulsion in the armies of the South; there were men whose ob- viously fictitious names concealed stories which could be guessed to be extraordinary ; there were names which have been for years among the best known and most honored in this state; and there were those of outcasts and wrecks.
A large part of these men came back after their service ended to resume the peaceful life of citizenship, and every town among us has known some of them ever since among its lead- ing figures, while some in quarters far distant have also attained to honors and responsi- bilities, as the records show. Connecticut has known for many years no small number of them as foremost in all lines of activity, and knows to-day, in official station and in private life, men of many honors, who count not least among these the fact that they were enrolled among the soldiers of the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
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