Connecticut’s Civil War Monuments

In 1863, while the war was still raging, a Civil War monument was raised in Kensington. It was the first of many Civil War monuments to be erected in Connecticut during the coming decades. These monuments can be found on Connecticut’s town greens and in parks and cemeteries. They were erected by bereaved families, veterans, local governments, and civic organizations. They range from simple obelisks to the elaborate Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford’s Bushnell Park. The heyday of monument construction was between 1866 and the entry of the United States into World War I. The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was an organization of Union veterans established just after the war and the local post was often the impetus for the local monument. The dedication ceremonies were frequently grand civic events. Schools and businesses closed and special trains brought visitors and reporters from nearby towns. There were speeches by politicians and veterans, a parade, and food provided by the Women’s Relief Corp, an auxiliary of the G.A.R. Over the years, as the number of veterans dwindled, fewer new monuments were created. In the 1930s, only three monuments were erected, the last in 1939 in Newtown. It was dedicated not only to Civil War veterans but also to all those who served from the American Revolution through World War I. It was almost forty years before the next monument was erected, a modest gravestone in New London for a Confederate general. A revised version of David F. Ransom’s “Connecticut’s Monumental Epoch: A Survey of Civil War Monuments” has returned to the CHS website just in time for the start of the Civil War Sesquicentennial in April. The survey represents fifteen years of fieldwork, photography, and research into Connecticut’s Civil War monuments. Originally published in The Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin in 1993 and 1994, the survey lists 136 monuments and includes information on historical and artistic significance, as well detailed physical descriptions and a black and white photograph of each monument.  Copies of the bulletins are still available and can be purchased on the CHS website.http://store.chs.org/products/%E2%80%9CConnecticut-Monumental-Epoch%3A-A-Survey-of-Civil-War-Memorials%E2%80%9D.html