Connecticut & the Civil War:
A Sesquicentennial Commemoration 

April 12, 2011 marks the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War.  In the Great Rebellion, as it is often known, some 620,000 Americans, both Union and Confederate, lost their lives.  When the war began Connecticut regiments were called to arms by decrees from both President Abraham Lincoln and Governor William Buckingham, who served as the state's chief executive throughout the war.  Connecticut offered 55,000 men, some ten percent of its population.  These troops served in every major engagement of the war, and the state's industrial capacity, especially its arms industry, was instrumental to the North's success.  Yet there was also considerable opposition within Connecticut to both the war and the Lincoln administration.  In many ways, Connecticut serves as a microcosm of northern society during the Civil War.

Because Connecticut was such a quintessential northern state, and because it was, especially in regard to arms and munitions, instrumental to the Union's survival, it seems particularly fitting that we mark the start of the war with a series of academic history, public history, social studies, and humanities initiatives.  Some activities are already underway in relation to the bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth, and a commemoration of the Civil War will naturally extend the Lincoln remembrance and help to offer a more specific consideration of the Great Rebellion and Connecticut's place in it.

This website presents some of the initial plans on how the Civil War Planning Committee is preparing to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of Connecticut and the Civil War.