-

CHAPTER XXXVII.

General Assembly. - Adjourned Session in January, 1864.- Spring Session.-Governor's

Message.The Ballot given to Soldiers in the Field. - Calls for Troops.-Recruit-

ing. The Quotas filled.- How it was done. - Presidential Election.-The Twenty-

ninth (colored) in South Carolina. - The Eighteenth Regiment. - Home on Furlough.

- Advance with Sigel.-Defeat at Newmarket.- Victory at Piedmont.- Loss of

Brave Men.-Pushing South.-Across the James. - Advance on Lynchburg. - Re-

pulse and Retreat.— Early Attacks Washington.- Affair at Snicker's Ferry

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The Dead Lock at Petersburg. - Flank Movement on the Right. The Sixth, Seventh,

Tenth, Fourteenth, and Twenty-ninth Connecticut, and the First Battery, engaged.

Four-mile Run.-Battle of Deep Run.- Charge by Terry's Division.-Strawberry

Plains. Withdrawal. — Casualties. The Fourteenth at Reams's Station. — Casu-

alties. Incidents along the Line

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Still in Front of Petersburg. - Demonstration on the Left. - The Fourteenth.- Advance

of Butler.-Chaffin's Bluff. - Capture of Fort Harrison. The Eighth and Twenty-

first. The Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, and Twenty-ninth on the Right." Rebel Repulse.

-

Casualties. Attack on Terry's Line.-Repulse. - Counter-Attack.- Death of

Major H. W. Camp. - Hawley's Brigade on the Darbytown Road. - The Twenty-

ninth as Skirmishers.-The Second and Fourteenth on Hatcher's Run. - Hawley's

Division at New York. - The First Artillery. - Butler fails to capture Fort Fisher.

Terry takes it by Storm.

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629

648

664

CHAPTER XL.

The Fifth and Twentieth in Tennessee. -

-

-

Guarding the Railroad. - Fight with Guerrillas.

Retaliation. Advance of the Spring. The Twentieth at Boyd's Trail. - Battle

of Resaca. Amusing Incidents.-The Fifth and Twentieth at Peach-tree Creek.

Sherman's Flank Movement.- Atlanta occupied. - Casualties in the Connecticut

Regiments. A Rest. The March to the Sea." At Savannah. Second Connecti-
cut Battery. In Louisiana and at Mobile. — The Bay Fight'

-

-

Sheridan takes Command in the Shenandoah. The First Connecticut Cavalry, Second

Artillery, and Ninth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Eighteenth Infantry. - At Winchester.

-Kearneysville. Skirmishes. - Battle of Opequan Creek. Casualties. Spring

Hill. Cedar Creek. Defeat and Victory. Heavy Losses.- The Pursuit.

of Honor of Yale College and Wesleyan University. The Seventeenth in Florida.—

Battles and Raids. - -Successes and Disasters. - Incidents. — Casualties

. 714

Prison Experience of our Soldiers.

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-

-

Testimony of a Confederate Surgeon. - Experience

of Weston Ferris on Belle Isle. Great Privation and Suffering. · Condition of Pris-

oners at Camp Ford, Tex.-Gen. E. M. Lee in Libby.-Capture of Major Sanford

and Men of the Seventh.- Adventures of Three Officers of the Sixteenth. Fidelity

of Surgeon Nickerson. - Thrilling Narrative of Lieut. Bailey.- Deaths at Anderson-

ville. Incidents of Martyrdom

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-

CHAPTER XLIII

-

Affairs before Richmond. - Grant and Sherman of Connecticut Stock. - Genealogy.-

Location and Organization of Connecticut Regiments. The First Cavalry returns

to Petersburg. Whitaker captures Major Gilmor.- Twelfth and Eighteenth Regi-

ments. First Artillery.- Death of Lieut.-Col. Trumbull. - Second Artillery.

First, Second, and Third Batteries. - Sixth and Seventh.- Death of Chaplain Eaton.

-Eighth, Eleventh, Twenty-first, and Twenty-ninth. - Ninth and Thirteenth.

Tenth and Fourteenth. Sherman's Great March Northward. — The Fifth and Twen-

tieth. Incidents of the Campaign. - Battles and Victories.- Casualties. - Disaster

of the Fifteenth Connecticut. The Sixteenth

737

.755

-

Spring of 1865. - The Beginning of the End. - Petersburg. Rebel Assault on Fort

Stedman.- - Repulse. Service of the First Connecticut Artillery. - The Second

Artillery and the Fourteenth on the Left. - The Tenth and Thirtieth. - The First

Cavalry at Five Forks.-The Tenth at Fort Gregg. - Unsurpassed Gallantry. -

Advance of the Whole Line. -Lee evacuates Petersburg and Richmond. The

Retreat and Pursuit.- First Cavalry at Sailor's Creek. Lee surrounded. - The

Surrender. In North Carolina.- The Capitulation of Johnston's Army

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-

.775

CHAPTER XLV.

-

Matters at Home. General Assembly of 1865. - The Governor's Message. - Legislation.

Number of Soldiers sent from the State. Our Regiments after the Close of the

War.-Two Pictures from Richmond. - Terry and Hawley in Virginia. - Presenta-

tions. Muster-out of Connecticut Regiments. - The Fourteenth. Twentieth.-

First, Second, and Third Light Batteries.- Twenty-first. Eighteenth.-Sixteenth.

- Fifteenth.-Fifth.- Seventeenth. First Cavalry.- Sixth.-Seventh.-Twelfth.

Second Artillery.- Ninth. - Tenth.- First Artillery. Twenty-ninth and Thir-

tieth.-Eighth and Eleventh. - Thirteenth. Thanks of the Legislature.

-

APPENDIX.

-

The Sons of Connecticut residing in New York. - The Connecticut Agency in New York.

The Agency in Washington. - Gen. Aiken's Visit to Washington. Connecticut in

the Navy. The Expenses for War Purposes.-The Generals of Connecticut.

Organizations and Casualties. Roll of Honor. Our Martyrs at Andersonville..

The Fifteenth at Kinston.

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798

833

- First American Constitution.

Heavy Taxation. — Courage of the New-Haven Colony. — Character of the Civil Government. The King's Officers resisted. The Charter preserved. - Connecticut Declaration of Independence. - Putnam at Boston. - The Statue at Litchfield. — Brother Jonathan. Connecticut Men capture the first British Flags in 1812. - The Blue-Laws. Comparison with other Colonies. Pre-eminence in Mechanics. — First Steamboat, Railroad, and Telegraph. - Influence on other States.

HE colonists of Connecticut organized the first republic on the Western continent. While all the other inhabitants of the coast the Pilgrims of Plymouth, the English traders of Boston, the Dutch at New Amsterdam, and the Cavaliers and Huguenots on the distant shore of Virginiawere living wholly under royal charters, and endeavoring to maintain public order by irregular and capricious penalties, the planters of the Connecticut1 Colony assembled at Hartford in January, 1639, and solemnly framed and adopted the first American Constitution. The promptness of her citizens in dictating statute law was equaled by their zeal in enforcing it to secure justice and promote tranquillity.

Alike in domestic and foreign wars, Connecticut has always displayed great vigor and courage. In the spring of 1637, two and a half years after the erection of the first

1 Named after the River Quonektacut, -Long River,

so called by the savages.

house, she was a little confederacy of three plantations, containing about one hundred and sixty families. But the forests enveloping her embryo towns had already become the lurking-place of the jealous and vengeful Pequot; and no traveler or loiterer was safe for a moment from his cruel tomahawk, and no dwelling secure for a night against his fire-brand. Numerous murders had already been committed, with every variety of torture.

The first recorded act of the General Court 2 of that year "Ordered, That there shall be an offensive war against the Pequots; and there shall be ninety men levied out of the plantations of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor." This was more than half of the adult males of the colony; and, after they went, those remaining at home were placed on short allowance of food, not the first time, nor the last, and there were not enough men left for the detail of sentries kept up night and day. "What we plant," wrote one of them, "is before our own doors; little anywhere else."

Foreseeing all this, the little army in one week set sail, under command of the sturdy Capt. John Mason, and, evincing both strategy and courage, surprised the Indian fort at Mystic, killed five or six hundred of the hostile tribe, ruined its proud chief, Sassacus, and returned home in time to plant corn for that year.*

The activity and stern valor in war thus early exhibited by the planters in no wise surpassed their wisdom in civil affairs. Two years later, in general convention assembled, they declared, "We do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves together to be as one public State or Commonwealth." They thereupon proceeded to frame an elaborate code of

six magistrates and nine committee-men.

2 Fifteen members,
8 Trumbull's Colonial Records.

4 Capt. Mason was subsequently offered a commission as major-general in Cromwell's army, but refused it. Major John Desborough of New Haven actually returned to England, and held that position; while his brother Samuel also went back to fight against Charles, and became Lord-Chancellor of Scotland under Cromwell. At the same time, Gov. Hopkins of New Haven was appointed to the high office of commissioner of the English navy; and Gov. Eaton, also of New Haven, was shortly thereafter made the king's ambassador at the court of Denmark.