For those who dwell within its borders,
or whose ancestral roots are bedded among
its hills, the claims of Litchfield County
to distinction are many and of many kinds.
In these latter days it has become notable
as the home of certain organizations of
unique character and high purpose, which
flourish under circumstances highly
exceptional, and certainly no less highly
appreciated.
It is as part of the work of one of these
that there is commemorated in this volume an
organization of an earlier day, one
distinctively of the county, in no way
unique in its time, but of the highest
purpose--the regiment gathered here for the
national defence in the Civil War.
The county's participation in that defence
was by no means restricted to the raising of
a single regiment. Quite as many, perhaps
more, of its sons were enrolled in other
commands as made up what was known
originally as the Nineteenth Connecticut
Volunteer Infantry; but in that body its
organized effort as a county found
expression, and it was proud to let the
splendid record of that body stand as
typical of its sacrifices for the
preservation of the Union.
Though the history of that regiment's career
has been written in full detail, the purpose
of this slight repetition of the story needs
no apology. There is sufficient
justification in its intrinsic interest, to
say nothing of a personal interest in its
members, men who gave such proofs of their
quality, and whose survivors are still our
neighbors in probably every town in the
county.
There is also something more than mere
interest to be gained, in considering
historical matters of such immensity as the
Civil War, in giving the attention to some
minute section of the whole, such as the
account of individual experiences, or of the
career of a particular regiment such as
this; it is of great value as bringing an
adequate realization of the actual bearing
of the great events of that time upon the
people of the time. The story of a body of
Litchfield County men, such men as we see
every day, drawn from such homes as we know
all about us, is a potent help to
understanding in what way and with what
aspects these great historical movements
bore upon the people of the country, for the
experience of this group of towns and their
sons furnished but one small instance of
what was borne, infinitely magnified,
throughout the nation.
Notes About Book:
Source: The County Regiment, by Dudley Landon Vaill. Published 1908, at Litchfield, Connecticut.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. A thorough editing was completed on the manuscript and it should be free from any ocr errors.