Civil War Guns, Powder, Stonewall's Horse, and 34 Battles

As the nation commemorates the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, we can certainly credit north central Connecticut for making major contributions. A look at the the history shows us that:

• Stonewall Jackson's horse was a northerner, born in Somers.

• Enfield was a major gunpowder hub.

• The inventor of the repeating rifle settled in Windsor.

• One soldier from Vernon took part in 34 different major engagements.

And there's more, especially the vignettes about everyday life. So read on and re-live how the region helped shape history.

Windsor/Manchester

Christopher M. Spencer was born in Hartford and grew up in Manchester before he invented the repeating rifle. The rifle changed the Civil War as Spencer's invention proved to be a hot commodity on the battlefield, allowing Union soldiers to fire seven shots for every one shot fired by their Confederate counterparts. Spencer's invention was approved by President Abraham Lincoln himself.

Lincoln invited Spencer to show off his invention in person. Lincoln tested the gun, firing it towards a target, which Spencer kept and later donated to a museum. With Lincoln's approval, Spencer founded The Spencer Repeating Rifle Company in 1862. The factory produced and delivered guns to the Union Army.

Some 20 years later, Spencer settled down in Windsor, marrying Georgette Taylor Spencer and having several children, including Vesta Taylor Spencer, who died in Windsor in 1922. In 1883, Spencer founded the Spencer Arms Company, which produced rifles and shotguns in its Windsor-based factory.

Somers

That's right, the favorite horse of Thomas ''Stonewall'' Jackson's, LIttle Sorrel, was foaled at the Collins Farm on Prink Street, now Springfield Road. Published reports have the mare, formerly a Union officer's mount, being acquired by Jackson at Harpers Ferry, Va., when she was about 11 years old.

Because the mare was so small that Jackson's feet nearly dragged the ground, she was often known as Little Sorrel. Little Sorrel Lane in Somers, Connecticut, commemorates the animal Jackson was riding when he was mortally wounded.

After Jackson's death at Chancellorsville, Little Sorrell eventually made her way to the Virginia Military Institute, where Jackson taught. Her hide is mounted on a plaster body and is on display at VMI.

Enfield

The and Battlegroundcigar.com tell us that Col. Augustus Hazard (1802-1868) founded the Hazard Powder Company in 1843. He built a mansion in Enfield, and was visited there by many notable persons, including Samuel Colt, Daniel Webster and Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, and later President of the Confederate States of America.

The gunpowder industry exploded, with the Mexican War of 1846, the California gold rush of 1849 and the Crimean War of 1854 all bringing huge orders for gunpowder. By popular vote of residents, the village at the western end of Enfield was named Hazardville in the 1850s in honor of Col. Hazard.

By the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, gunpowder was a million-dollar business in Enfield. Wartime capacity at Col. Hazard's mills reached 12,500 pounds of gunpowder per day. About 125 buildings were used in the production process, stretching from Hazardville to Scitico. The mill at Hazardville was in operation 24 hours a day, and produced 40 percent of all the gunpowder used by the Union during the Civil War.

A few buildings remain standing today in the area known as Powder Hollow.

Ellington

Lucius Henry Lewis, son of Ira and Alice Foster Lewis, served in Company C of the 22nd Regiment Connecticut Volunteers Infantry in the Civil War. He posed for a photograph after he enlisted on August 25, 1862. He served until July 7, 1863, and went into the clothing business in Hartford after the war.

His father, Ira H. Lewis, a blacksmith, served in the Connecticut General Assembly and local offices and was a member of the Advent Church. In 1865, Lewis and his wife, Alice Ann Foster, bought a farm on South Road from Ebeneer Harwood. His daughter, Hattie, once recalled that shortly after they moved in, a neighbor came to the door shouting, "Iry! Iry! They've shot the president," as he waved a newspaper reporting Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Mansfield

The town was quite generous when it came to enlistment bonuses late in the summer and into the fall of 1862. On July 28, the town voted to pay a bounty of $75 to any man who enlisted on the army on or before Aug. 20.

On Sept. 3, the town voted to pay a bounty of $200 to fill Mansfield's quota in the draft as dictated by President Abraham Lincoln.

On Oct. 27, the town voted to pay another $100 bounty to a sufficient number of volunteers to fill the town quota (if any were requited).

Suffield

Monuments sprung up all over the place after the Civil War. Lester Smith, town historian for Suffield,  says that the Suffield Soldiers Monument, on the corner of Mountain Road and Main Street, was unveiled in 1888. It depicts a Union soldier in parade dress who stands 7-foot-8 on a 16-foot pedestal.

Engraved on the monument are the date of creation,1888, and the names of three areas where major battles occurred and Suffield soldiers who died. They are: Sharpsburg, Md., where the Battle of Antietam took place; Fort Wagner at the entrance to the Charleston Harbor (depicted ion the movie "Glory") in South Carolina; and Andersonville, the Confederate prison camp in Georgia where more than 10,000 Union soldiers died. The names of the dead soldiers are listed on the east side of the monument

An inscription reads: "Suffield erects this memorial in honor of her citizen soldiers who died serving their country, that the Union might be preserved, 1861 -1865.''

The companies recruited from Suffield were Company C of the First Regiment Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Company D of the 16th Regiment Connecticut Infantry and Company G of the 22nd Regiment Connecticut Infantry. Soldiers from Suffield served in other regiments as well.

Suffield sent 348 soldiers to the war, 287 were town residents. The rest were from out of town and attracted by the enlistment bounties.

The First Regiment served in the siege of Richmond as part of the Army of the Potomac. Company C was commended by the Army's commander, Gen. George McClellan, for service manning 10-inch mortars.

The 16th Regiment went to the Battle of Antietam about 20 days after Suffield's Company D was recruited. That battle was the most deadly single-day encounter of the war.

Company G didn't reach the front lines.

When the monument was unveiled, Dr. Matthew T. Newton, a town resident and military surgeon for three years, spoke at the event.

"It is to do duty to the memory of a few of these fellow comrades of whom I speak, sons of Suffield by birth or adoption, that we have erected this monument, a testimonial to their memory, to their valor and sacrificial death that their names as soldiers of the war of the great rebellion may be on visible record long, long after our names are numbered with those that lived."

Vernon

The army resume of Sgt. Benjamin Hirst qualifies him for a Ph.D. in battle. The Vernon resident was the non-commissioned officer in Company D, 14th Connecticut regiment.

The regiment was involved in 34 major battles and skirmishes and there is a display noting it on a wall at the in Vernon pays homage to it.

The battles include Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, The Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor.

Hirst's letters home were turned into a book, "The Boys of Rockville."

The New England Civil War Museum, located on the second floor of Vernon Town Hall,  is  open on the second and fourth Sunday of each month from noon to 3 p.m.

Tolland

According to Town Historian Barbara Cook, Tolland’s population in 1860 was 1,130, of which a surprising number of eligible men served in the war. 

There were 134 who called Tolland their hometown when they volunteered to serve the Union, and additional local men joined in other towns. There are a total of 42 veterans in the three cemeteries.

Company K of the 22nd Regiment,  Connecticut Volunteers,  was made up of 42 men recruited from Tolland and about 40 more from nearby towns.  Benjamin Loomis of Tolland was their Captain.  Twenty more had already joined the 18th Regiment and lesser numbers served in many Connecticut and other states’ regiments including artillery, cavalry, and regular Army and Navy. 

Eleven enlisted in the 29th and 31st Colored Infantry Regiments.

Six died of their wounds, nine more of disease, nine were wounded and 14 were captured.  Many who were discharged for disability died at home as a result of their wounds or disease.

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An enormous living history event will take place this weekend in New Britain's Stanley Quarter Park. Visitors will be able to experience a Civil War encampment and simulated battle skirmishes featuring 600 union and confederate army re-enactors. See our for the full schedule.

And check out our from the cannon blasts on Monday at the state Capitol in Hartford, marking the shelling of Fort Sumter, South Carolina in 1861.