Several Never Returned––

Many In Newtown Answered President Lincoln’s Call For Civil War Volunteers

By Jan Howard

The bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, began at 4:30 am, and on Monday, April 15, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for three months.

Newtown heard the call and turned its energies to raising men and money for the war effort. By the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery, approximately 250 men from Newtown, including some African Americans, had served in 25 regiments.

Approximately 55,000 men from Connecticut served in the Union Army; 5,065 died, 6,281 deserted, and 4,361 were wounded. Connecticut soldiers fought at Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor, among other battles.

Though President Lincoln had authorized formation of black combat units in 1863, Connecticut was slow to organize these units. Black volunteers from Connecticut had to travel to Massachusetts and Rhode Island to enlist. Eventually, Gov William Buckingham ordered formation of a black infantry unit and the 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was assembled. The 29th was the only full African American regiment from the state. Eight of its volunteers were from Newtown.

A bounty of $100 was voted by the town meeting for anyone to enlist. It eventually rose to $300, and the town had to borrow $25,000 to pay the muster bounties. By 1863 it was necessary to form a committee to procure volunteers.

The first response in Newtown to the call for volunteers came on April 24 when David O’Brien, Thomas O’Brien, and Edward Carley enlisted and were mustered into the government service on May 11. They served three months, and were mustered out August 11. Another early volunteer was Charles W. Dayton, who lived in Sandy Hook.

The war took its toll on Newtown’s volunteers, just as it did everywhere in the north and south.

David O’Brien reenlisted and was mustered into the 9th Connecticut on September 27, 1861. He served until November 27, 1862, when he was discharged for disability. Thomas O’Brien reenlisted in the 9th Connecticut and was mustered in September 26, 1861. He died in service on November 16, 1862.

Edward Carley reenlisted in the 12th Connecticut and was mustered in November 20, 1861. He was promoted to sergeant on January 23, 1863, and was killed May 27,1863, at Fort Hudson, La.

Other Newtown men who died in the war included James Kelly who enlisted January 5, 1864 in the Third Connecticut, and died September 3 at Andersonville, Ga., and Patrick Kaine who enlisted January 2, 1864 in the 2nd Regiment, Heavy Artillery, and was killed June 1, 1864 at Cold Harbor, Va.

Charles H. Payne was also mortally wounded at Cold Harbor. He enlisted December 17, 1863 in the 8th Connecticut. Corp David W. Jones, who enlisted August 11, 1863 in the 20th Connecticut, was killed May 3, 1864 at Chancellorsville, Va.

The battle of Gettysburg cost two Newtown men their lives. James Gordon, who enlisted August 11, 1862 with the 17th, was killed on July 1, 1863. Corp C.H. Roberts, who enlisted August 12, 1863, was wounded on July 3, 1863 and died 20 days later on July 23.

Following the war, men who had served in the Civil War joined groups related to the units with which they had served. On August 31, 1900, The Newtown Bee wrote about the 38th annual reunion of the 17th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Association, which was held at Pleasure Beach, Bridgeport, on August 28. It attracted 76 veterans and their wives. During the event, someone read off the names of comrades who had died the previous year. Albert W. Peck of Newtown, who had enlisted in the 17th Infantry in Bridgeport on July 23, 1862 and achieved the rank of first lieutenant, was elected secretary of the organization.

The 17th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Association, the story said, still kept “Old Glory floating from a flagpole on Barlow’s Knoll, Gettysburg, near their monument, on which is inscribed the names of 35 dead heroes from this regiment killed in battle.” At that time, it was the only regiment to keep the flag flying out of nearly 400 organizations that had monuments erected there.

Among the men killed at Gettysburg was Corp Alva E. Wilcox of Company D, a relative of Mrs John B. Wheeler of Newtown. Alva Wilcox was mortally wounded by a Rebel sharpshooter on East Cemetery Hill on July 2, 1863.

As A.W. Peck wrote in 1900, “In order to fully realize the horrors of war, one needs to visit the battlefield of Gettysburg, which is nearly six miles in length and read the inscriptions on the 400 monuments located there.”

Obituaries of men published in The Newtown Bee in the early 1900s often mentioned the unit in which they served in the Civil War. On April 6, 1900, an obituary noted, “Another of the local band of Civil War veterans, Barnard Kelly, died on Monday morning, at his residence.” He was 74 and had served in the 24th Connecticut.

Griffin Lillis was a unique veteran of the Civil War. In his 1890 obituary he is mentioned as having been an officer in both the Confederate and Union armies and a founding member of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). More can be learned about him by reading Dan Cruson’s article in the January–February 2003 issue of The Rooster’s Crow, the Newtown Historical Society’s newsletter.

Martin Lillis, who died in December of 1905, was a veteran of the 23rd Connecticut Volunteers and 2nd Connecticut Light Battery. It was noted that three of his brothers had lost their lives in the Civil War.

The war was apparently not over for some. On March 6, 1903, it was reported that GAR posts were sending protests to a bill introduced into the Pennsylvania Legislature to appoint a committee and appropriate funds to erect a monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the field of Gettysburg. The story said the south “also does not take kindly to the scheme and suggests, through the hot-headed Southern press, that the people of the north let her heroes alone.”

The story noted, however, that some people “look at the proposal as a healing of all the bitterness of the Civil War and the dawn of the day of greater unity between north and south.”

Many veterans of the northern army joined GAR posts following the war. One of them was Judge Ephraim Briscoe, who once served as adjutant for the Custer Post, No. 46, GAR in Newtown. In 1916, Mr Briscoe wrote a series of articles for The Bee about his experiences during the Civil War. (A story related his experiences will appear in next week’s Newtown Bee).

Connecticut supported the war effort, living up to its name as Provision State, with factories across the state providing firearms, swords and bayonets, cannons, wagons, canteens, brass buttons, uniforms, cartridge belts, and tons of gunpowder. Others provided rubber for ponchos, blankets, boots, machine tools, hardware, leather for saddles and harnesses, sewing machines, and textiles.

Shipbuilders were building troop and cargo transports, and more steam vessels were built at Mystic between 1861 and 1865 than at any other New England port.

(Information for this story was found in Newtown Connecticut Past and Present published by The League of Women Voters, Johnson’s History, Newtown Ye History, and Connecticut’s Role in the Civil War by the Connecticut Historical Society. )