Middlebury in the Civil War – Part II

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The Twenty-ninth Connecticut Colored Regiment is shown at Beaufort, South Carolina. The regiment traveled as far as Louisiana and Texas. (Library of Congress image)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

All officers of the 29th Connecticut Colored Regiment Infantry were white. African Americans and Native Americans had served in every previous war, but reluctance to have them serve as officers prevailed. The 29th was led by Colonel William Burr Wooster of Derby, whose uniform can be seen in the collection of the Museum of Connecticut History at the State Library in Hartford.

His company set out on March 8, 1864, for Annapolis, Maryland. As the regiment marched through the streets of New Haven, Isaac Hill wrote, “white and colored ladies and gentlemen grasped me by the hand, with tears streaming down their cheeks … expressing the hope that we might have a safe return.” The regiment saw valiant service in taking Fort Harrison, Virginia, and it saw conflict in South Carolina, ultimately making its way to Louisiana and Texas.

The 1997 African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C., which features a bronze statue by Ed Hamilton called “The Spirit of Freedom,” lists the names of 209,145 African Americans who served as soldiers and sailors in the United States Army and Navy during that war, with 2,145 Hispanic soldiers, along with 20,000 unsegregated Navy sailors.

In Connecticut, it is estimated over 1,700 of a population of 2,206 eligible (ages 15 to 50) African American men enlisted for duty. Additionally, a monument in New Haven’s Criscuolo Park, unveiled in 2008, is dedicated to the men who served in the 29th Regiment.

The 29th was honorably disbanded in November 1865 and appeared in a great parade hosted by Connecticut’s governor, William A. Buckingham, and Mayor Allyn S. Stillman of Hartford. In his speech, the governor declared, “Your courage and valor were not abated and you are credited with having been the first infantry that entered Richmond after Lee’s army had been driven out … The 30th of July, 1864, that terrible day on which you entered the exploded mines before Petersburg with 313 officers and men, and came out of the dead struggle with only 163, will ever stand in history as testimony to your courage and fidelity” (Hartford Courant). By law, the veterans were not allowed to vote until the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1870.

Corporal William H. Mitchell, a 22-year-old farmer, enlisted in Company B of the 29th Regiment Infantry Connecticut Volunteers on November 30, 1863, and was mustered in March 8, 1864. His enlistment form showed that he was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, but lived in Oxford, and that he stood five feet, eight inches tall. Both he and his wife, Jannette, were probably part African American and part Indian, for they are listed in the 1870 U.S. census as “mulatto.”

On September 1, 1864, during the nine months of “the Siege of Petersburg,” Virginia, which forced Lee to abandon both Petersburg and Richmond, Mitchell was wounded. He survived another year and was mustered out of the service on October 24, 1865. He died in Middlebury on February 2, 1882, and was buried in the “colored” section of Middlebury Cemetery near his wife, Jannette A. (Lacey) Mitchell, who had died February 23, 1881. William’s name is not on our town’s memorial plaque.

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.