Skip to content
Wethersfield Historical Society

Wethersfield Historical Society

History Happens Every Day

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
  • About
    • Wethersfield Historical Society’s Stance Against Discrimination and Oppression
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Mission
    • Research
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Newsletter
    • Tercentenary Film
    • Our Logo
    • Privacy Policy/Legal
  • Visit
    • Exhibition/Properties
      • The Black Experience in Wethersfield and Electronic Submission Page
      • Chronicling COVID-19 and Electronic Submission Form
    • The XVth Annual Taste of Wethersfield Postponed
    • 40th Annual Old Wethersfield Arts and Crafts Fair October 1, 2022 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
  • Education/Tours
    • For Educators
    • For Scouts and Leaders
    • Adult Tours & Programs
  • Site Rental
    • Rental Facility
      • Film Production at WHS
    • Keeney History
  • Virtual WHS
    • Annual Report 2019 – 2020
    • WHS Book Talk
    • Virtual Exhibit – Chronicling COVID-19
    • Virtual Exhibit – Wethersfield Women
    • Old Wethersfield Lantern Light Tours 2020
    • WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: Intro to Black History in Wethersfield
    • WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: I. The American Revolution
    • WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: II. The CT State Prison at Wethersfield
    • WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: III. Colonial Wethersfield through the lens of the Ancient Burying Ground
    • WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: IV. Women of Wethersfield
    • Keeney Koolers Concert Series 2020: The Jolly Beggars and Goza Latin Band
  • Membership
  • Support
    • Membership
    • Annual Fund
    • Donation to the Collection
    • Leave a Legacy
    • Volunteer
  • Contact
  • Donations

Wethersfield’s Civil War Participants

Home » Articles From The Community » Wethersfield’s Civil War Participants

John Morris


Civil War Participants_S. Adams 2-thumb-150x195-23.jpgJohn
Morris was Chaplain of the 22nd
Connecticut Volunteer Regiment
from May 1, 1862 until September of
1863. He was at the battle of Antietam
and when the Regiment was in danger of being overwhelmed, he picked up a
rifle and ammunition to protect himself.





 


 


Civil War Participants_E. Morris-thumb-150x190-26.jpgMorris
courted his bride-to-be, Emily ‘Gussie’ Griswold, in a group of letters
which are owned by the Wethersfield Historical society. They were
married Dec 31, 1863.

Morris collaborated with W.A.Croffut in a
book called “The Military and Civil History of Connecticut” during the
Recent War, which was published in 1868. He went south to assist in
reconstruction and died in 1873.


 


 


Robert H. Kellogg

Civil War Participants_R. Kellogg-thumb-150x115-29.jpg

(Robert Kellogg is on the right; his
partner is unidentified. Courtesy of the Museum of Connecticut
History.)

Robert Kellogg joined the army on August 11,
1862 and attained the rank of Sergeant Major in the 16th
Connecticut Regiment
. This is the highest non-commissioned rank
attainable. He was captured with his unit and sent to Andersonville, Georgia. While there,
he became a leader of the prisoners helping them to cope with that
horrible existence. He wrote a book about his experience entitled “Life
and Death in Rebel Prisons”. After the war he became involved in
veterans concerns, including commemoration of their prison ordeal.
Through his and others efforts, there is a monument on the State Capitol
grounds with a young man known as Andersonville Boy. Kellogg
is the model for that statue.

Sherman W. Adams

Civil War Participants_J. Morris-thumb-150x225-32.jpgSherman
Adams enlisted on November 20, 1862 and became Asst. Pay Master of
Gunboat Somerset that was on blockade duty off the coast of the
panhandle of Florida. This duty was usually quietly routine, but served
and important function in the Civil Was starving the Confederacy of
supplies and armaments. Adams is more predominantly known as one of the
authors of “The History of Ancient Wethersfield”. Adams had prepared the
notes but illness prevented the completion of the work which was done
by Henry Stiles. Adams was a member of the Connecticut House of
Representatives and a judge of the Hartford Police Court. He died in
1898, seven years before the publishing of the history.


 

Gideon
Welles

Although Gideon Welles was not a native of Wethersfield,
he was descended from the Welles family that produced many men of note
for Wethersfield and the rest of Connecticut. Welles was an editor of
the Hartford Times and a prominent member of the Democratic Party. The
Republican party that elected Abraham Lincoln was a coalition party of
Whigs, Free Soilers, Anti-Slavery Democrats and various splinter
parties. After the election he was given Secretary of the Navy, which
rewarded both Democrats and New England.

Welles was considered a
weak member of the cabinet by those members who had similar feelings
about Lincoln. He was loyal to Lincoln and helped about some of the
political moves of Seward, Chase and the senate leadership.

Gifford
Stedman, Jr.

Although Stedman was not at Wethersfield man, his
remains are now here in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
There is also a monument to him in Barry Square. He became colonel of
the 11th Connecticut Regiment at Antietam after the death of Col.
Humphrey.

He was killed at Petersburg
in August of 1864 and breveted Brigadier General as of that date. His
major claim to fame is Fort Stedman at Petersburg which was named after
him posthumously. Lee attacked the fort on March 25, 1865 in a final
attempt to break the siege of Petersburg. It was a failure and the war
in Virginia was over three weeks later.

Reader Dean Mesologites points out correctly that “it was not Gifford Stedman, but Alexander Stedman at Barry Square. He
graduated from Trinity in 1859, then went to be a lawyer in
Philadelphia. In 1861, he came to his home, Hartford, and was mustered
in May of that year where Campfield and Maple intersect at Barry Square.
He was 24 years old when he was killed at Petersburg.”
Thank you.

Andrew Hull Foote

This
is another man who was not of Wethersfield but was a descendant of
Wethersfield patriarch Nathaniel Foote. Foote was from New Haven and was
commander of the western Flotilla on the rivers. In February of 1862,
he cooperated with Grant and largely captured Fort Henry
on the Tennessee River with only naval personnel. In the successive
battle to take Fort Donelson on
the Cumberland, the Navy was less successful. Foote was wounded and in
June of the next year he died of complications from that wound.

Search

Articles from the Community

  • Articles from the Community
    • 284 Brimfield Road
    • A Birds-eye View of Wethersfield's History
    • A Boyhood Visit to G. Fox & Company
    • A Brief History of Wethersfield United Methodist Church
    • A History of Franklin Avenue
    • A History of Temple Beth Torah
    • A Life of William Beadle
    • A Shepard and his Flock: Counting Chairs and Tracking Down Apprentices at the Wethersfield Historical Society
    • A Whaling Family
    • About the Authors
    • Black History in Wethersfield
    • Childhood Memories of the Wethersfield Homefront
    • Colonel John Chester
    • Connecticut at War: 1634 – 1781
    • Connecticut's Black Governors
    • Connecticut's Witch Trials
    • Dividend
    • Fairway 6
    • Foodways
    • Francesco A. Lentini – Three-Legged Wonder
    • Frank and Lou
    • George Whitefield – The Billy Graham of Colonial America
    • Governor Thomas Welles
    • Griswoldville Connecticut (1680-1987)
    • History of Public Libraries in Wethersfield
    • History of the Church of the Incarnation
    • History of Trinity Parish (Episcopal)
    • History of Wethersfield Library
    • Horribles Parade
    • Horseradish King
    • Houses of Worship
    • Issacson's Field Plane Crash
    • Jared Butler Standish
    • Meet Mr. Wethersfield: Alfred W. Hanmer
    • Mill Woods Park: A History
    • One Branch of the Josiah Willard Family of Wethersfield
    • Rediscovering Benjamin Lee Whorf
    • Religion in Glastonbury: the Congregationalists
    • Reverend and Colonel Elisha Williams
    • Rocky Hill: A History
    • Sgt. Maj. Robert H. Kellogg
    • Slavery and Wethersfield
    • Sophia Woodhouse's Grass Bonnets
    • Still Fighting Fires After All These Years
    • Table of Contents
    • The "Conference State"
    • The Blue Violet
    • The Chesters of Blaby Leicestershire England
    • The Contentious Life of James Wakelee
    • The Eel-Catcher’s Travels: Robert Seeley 1602-1667
    • The First Church of Christ
    • The Undoing of Silas Deane
    • The Welles Family and the Establishment of Newington
    • The Wethersfield Elms
    • The Wethersfield Meteorites
    • The Woman Came To Do Laundry
    • They Even Survived Rocks on the Track
    • Thomas Hickey: George Washington's Wethersfield Kidnapper
    • Town's Biggest Fire
    • Twentieth-Century Wethersfield
    • Wethersfield Almshouse 1843-44
    • Wethersfield Enters the Revolution
    • Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church
    • Wethersfield Illinois
    • Wethersfield in the Civil War by Wes Christensen
    • Wethersfield Prison Blues
    • Wethersfield Street Life 1634-1995
    • Wethersfield Summers
    • Wethersfield: A History
    • Wethersfield: The Cradle of American Seed Companies
    • Wethersfield's "Other" Plane Accidents
    • Wethersfield's Homebuilders: 1634 – 1900
    • Wethersfield's Homebuilders: 1900 – 1930
    • Wethersfield's Homebuilders: 1940s and Beyond
    • Wethersfield's Top 10 Natural Disasters
    • Wethersfield’s Dinosaur Footprints
    • Wethersfield's Glorious Baseball History
    • Who was Charles Wright?
    • William W. Anderson Veteran of the Allied Invasion of Normandy June 6
    • Wintergreen Woods: A History
Wethersfield Historical Society Wethersfield Historical Society
150 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT 06109
p. (860) 529-7656 f. (860) 563-2609
Home | About Us | Visit | Education/Tours | Site Rental | Support | Contact UsThe construction of this website has been made possible in part, by a Strategic Technology Grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Proudly powered by WordPress