A Confederate Soldier's Story

Miles O'Sherrill was a Confederate soldier from North Carolina who might have faced some of the Connecticut troops in battle. Read his soldier's diary to learn more.

A Soldier's Life

Guard Mount of the Connecticut Heavy Artillery Regiment, Virginia, c. 1863. Photograph Collection.

"First night in barracks is gone...I suppose we will get our uniforms or part of them tomorrow. Then we will be soldiers, I guess."
Silas Edward Mead to his parents, Fort Trumbull, New London, CT, 26 August 1862.
Silas Edward Mead papers.

The men from Greenwich who enlisted in the Union army were ill-prepared for the experiences that lay before them. They may have enlisted with visions of glory won on the field of battle; the reality was a life of discomfort, danger, disease and death. By the time the war was over, they had traveled the country, had fought in some of the war's bloodiest battles and seen their friends and comrades die. When they returned from a war many had thought would be over in a matter of months, they were forever changed by their experiences.