Middlebury in the Civil War – Part I

#Middlebury #AfricanAmerican

This large monument with smaller ones around it stands in Criscuolo Park in New Haven. Honoring the 29th Colored Regiment and designed by Ed Hamilton, it was erected in 2008 through the hard work and persistence of Harrison Mero, a descendant of one of the soldiers who served in the 29th Regiment. It stands on the site of the regiment’s original encampment. (Middlebury Historical Society photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

As the United States Army surged farther south during the height of the Civil War in 1863, it succeeded in routing Robert E. Lee and his rebel followers from their strongholds. After the insurgents fled Richmond, Virginia, the “capital” of their treasonous ambitions, one of the first regiments to march into the city was the 29th Regiment Colored Infantry from Connecticut. Among them were two African American men with Middlebury history, William H. Mitchell and Jacob Prime.

Private Jacob Prime may have been born in New Haven or Middlebury, but we know that he enlisted in Company I of the 29th on January 5, 1864, was 19 years old, and that he was five feet, two and one half inches tall. There is no headstone for him in the cemetery, but he may have been buried in the “colored” section of the cemetery. His name, however, is extolled on our Veteran Monument plaque outside Town Hall, in thankful remembrance for his service to our country.

Connecticut had a long history of slavery of African and Native Americans. By the time of the Revolutionary War, Connecticut had more enslaved people than any other New England state. After many legal and political battles, Connecticut finally abolished slavery on June 12, 1848. Nancy Toney of Windsor, 83, perhaps Connecticut’s last enslaved person, died in 1857.

That year, in defiance of the United States Supreme Court’s heinous Dred Scott decision, which ruled that African Americans had no rights of citizenship, Connecticut passed a law stating that any slave not a fugitive from another state “coming into this state, or being therein, shall forthwith become and be free.” The Civil War ensued as Southern slave holders attempted to overthrow the government.

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and on November 23 he ordered the War Department to have the adjutant general begin forming a “regiment of Infantry, to be designated as the 29th Regiment Conn. Volunteers (colored), to serve for three years or during the war.”

By December 3, the first Connecticut African American regiment ever to be formed in Connecticut had 145 men in camp; the number grew to 226 by January 5, and by March, 1,006 men were fully recruited and mustered for duty. Because men were continuing to sign up for duty, another regiment, the 30th (which later became the 31st), was formed from the overflow of volunteers.

The 29th’s heroic service to the nation included over 44 battles throughout Virginia. In their conflict, 23 soldiers were killed in action; one officer and 22 enlisted men died of wounds and an additional 153 died of disease.

The heroic legacy of the 29th Regiment was chronicled in two books by African-American soldiers who served in it, the Rev. Isaac J. Hill, in, “A Sketch of the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Troops” (1867), and the Rev. Alexander H. Newton, D.D., in “Out of the Briars” (1910). Kevin Johnson, on the staff of the Connecticut State Library, has for many years performed hundreds of live portrayals of Private William Webb, an African-American soldier from Hartford, who served in the 29th.

As the regiment neared completion in New Haven, the renowned abolitionist and activist, Frederick Douglass, addressed the troops there on January 29, 1864. He expressed the hope that the soldiers’ service would “win freedom and citizenship” for all African Americans, telling them, “You are pioneers – on you depends the destiny of four millions of the colored race in this country. If you rise and flourish, we shall rise and flourish.”

You are urged to join the Middlebury Historical Society by going online at MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or visiting them on Facebook. Questions about membership can be sent to Bob at robraff@comcast.net.