Connecticut's Civil War Monuments

Introduction || Connecticut's Monuments: an essay || Study Methodology || Monument Listing
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Study Methodology

The survey of Connecticut's Civil War monuments was conducted by David F. Ransom. Fieldwork, photography, and research were carried out irregularly over the past 15 years and intensively during the past 18 months. The final report is deposited with the Connecticut Historical Commission, 59 South Prospect Street, Hartford, Connecticut. The Commission maintains a microfiche copy; the original is in the Special Collections Department of the Thomas Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut.

Inventory forms of Civil War monuments that incorporate sculpture also were furnished to the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., as part of the Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) survey sponsored by the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property, which was ongoing simultaneously.

The area surveyed was the State of Connecticut, consisting of 5,009 square miles divided into 169 towns.

The goal of the project was to survey all Civil War civic monuments and memorials, irrespective of size, aesthetic considerations, condition, and age. An inclusive, rather than exclusive, interpretation of what constitutes a Civil War monument was adopted. The distinction between a civic Civil War monument and a private monument is sometimes borderline. In general, monuments to individual leaders were inventoried, especially if they incorporate elements of sculpture or fine stonecutting; simple monuments to men in the ranks, mostly individual graves in cemeteries, were not. Buildings not constructed as Civil War memorials were not inventoried, even though they may now have association with the Civil War. Examples of homes omitted for this reason are those of General John Sedgwick and General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. Three boderline cases are included in the alpha-numeric list as a matter of reference, without being assigned a number.

In instances where monuments and memorials commemorate more than one war, if the Civil War is mentioned on the monument as prominently as other wars, the monument was inventoried. Civil War monuments range in size from small plaques to memorial buildings.

For every monument inventoried, a standard SOS! Survey Questionnaire of the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property was filled out. For memorial buildings, a Connecticut Historic Resource Inventory Form was prepared, observing the guidelines of the Connecticut Historical Commission. The monument was described, its history given, and an assessment made of its artistic and historical significance. Every monument was visited and photographed (black and white print and slide).

Research on the monuments was carried out primarily in local libraries, historical society libraries, town halls, and the Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut. These repositories often have scrapbooks or vertical files of informative newspaper clippings which may or may not be identified with title of publication, date, and page number.

In this publication information from the survey inventory has been edited in paragraph format and rearranged for the general reader. Some additional facts which came to hand subsequent to the survey have been included.

In the list of sources given for each monument, the citations for two often-quoted sources have been abbreviated. The single world Baruch is used to indicate Mildred C. Baruch and Ellen J. Beckman, Civil War Union Monuments (Washington, D.C.: Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War,, 1978). Ransom Bio denotes David F. Ransom, "Biographical Dictionary of Hartford Architects," The Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin, 54(Winter/Spring 1989).

David Ransom's "Connecticut's Monumental Epoch" was published in 1996. While his work was reformatted for the web in 2000, and subsequently reformatted in 2010, no additional information has been added.