After the Civil War, Connecticut's cities and towns dedicated 140 monuments to honor the more than 55,000 men who fought in the conflict and the memory of the 5,300 residents who died during their Civil War service. The second edition of Civil War Monuments of Connecticut highlights these granite and bronze tributes to the memory and sacrifice of the state's Civil War veterans and heroes. From Greenwich to Stafford Springs, and from Sharon to Stonington, this illustrated guidebook explores the state's monuments, the artists who created them, and the soldiers they honor.

Stories of New England soldiers who perished in this bloody battle, based on their diaries and letters. The Battle of Antietam, in September 1862, was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War. In the intense conflict and its aftermath across the farm fields and woodlots near Sharpsburg, Maryland, more than two hundred men from Connecticut died. Their grave sites are scattered throughout the Nutmeg State, from Willington to Madison and Brooklyn to Bristol. Here, author John Banks chronicles their mostly forgotten stories using diaries, pension records, and soldiers’ letters. Learn of Henry Adams, a twenty-two-year-old private from East Windsor who lay incapacitated in a cornfield for nearly two days before he was found; Private Horace Lay of Hartford, who died with his wife by his side in a small church that served as a hospital after the battle; and Captain Frederick Barber of Manchester, who survived a field operation only to die days later. This book tells the stories of these and many more brave Yankees who fought in the fields of Antietam. Includes photos

“Serves as a model of what a state-level survey of the Civil War can achieve . . . a potent combination of description and analysis.” —The Civil War Monitor Connecticut in the American Civil War offers a remarkable window into the state’s involvement in a conflict that challenged and defined the unity of a nation. The arc of the war is traced through the many facets and stories of battlefield, home front, and factory. Matthew Warshauer masterfully reveals the varied attitudes toward slavery and race before, during, and after the war; Connecticut’s reaction to the firing on Fort Sumter; the dissent in the state over whether or not the sword and musket should be raised against the South; the raising of troops; the sacrifice of those who served on the front and at home; and the need for closure after the war. This book is a concise, amazing account of a complex and troubling war. No one interested in this period of American history can afford to miss reading this important contribution to our national and local stories.

"This ... assessment of Civil War monuments unveiled in the United States between the 1860s and 1930s argues that they were pivotal to a national embrace of military values. Americans' wariness of standing armies limited construction of war memorials in the early republic, ... and continued to influence commemoration after the Civil War. ... distrust of standing armies gave way to broader enthusiasm for soldiers in the Gilded Age. Some important projects challenged the trend, but many Civil War monuments proposed new norms of discipline and vigor that lifted veterans to a favored political status and modeled racial and class hierarchies. A half century of Civil War commemoration reshaped remembrance of the American Revolution and guided American responses to World War I"--

This collection of nine original essays provides a rich new understanding of Connecticut’s vital role in the Civil War. The book’s nine chapters address an array of individual topics that together weave an intricate fabric depicting the state’s involvement in this tumultuous period of American history. In-depth examinations of subjects as diverse as the abolitionist movement in Windham County, the shipbuilding industry in Mystic, and post-traumatic stress disorder in Connecticut veterans serve as an excellent companion to Matthew Warshauer’s earlier book on the subject, Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice, and Survival. Contributors include David C. W. Batch, Luke G. Boyd, James E. Brown, Michael Conlin, Emily E. Gifford, Todd Jones, Diana Moraco, Carol Patterson-Martineau, and Michael Sturges. Ebook Edition Note: 6 illustrations have been redacted.