Envelope, Union stationery.
Mead Family papers.

Greenwich citizens struggled over the issues of slavery and states' rights. Slavery existed in the town until 1825; local abolitionists preached to hostile audiences in Greenwich and Fairfield County, which occasionally turned violent. By 1861 those living in Greenwich had to consider two questions--Did a state have the right to leave the Union? Should slavery be abolished everywhere in the Union? Their answers to those questions determined whether they were Unionists or Secessionists.

By the time war with the South had been declared, patriotic spirit led many men in town to volunteer in the Union Army and necessity caused women to assume new responsibilities at home. What none anticipated as they prepared for war was the enormous price the nation would pay in what remains the bloodiest conflict in American history.