New England Civil War Museum & Research Center

in Concept of Freedom

Housed in the former meeting place of Civil War veterans, the New England Civil War Museum tells the stories of everyday people who experienced the nation’s most tumultuous time period. Home to “Pioneers of Liberty”, the history of the 29th and 30th Connecticut Volunteer “Colored” Infantry regiments take center stage as the lives of Black soldiers, sailors, and civilians of African Ancestry from Connecticut and New England are explored before, during, and after the war.

Currently, the main tour, “Seth, Joseph, Lizzie, and George” interweaves the lives of four Connecticut men and women through the Civil War. Joseph L. Porter, a young Black wool mill carder from Rockville jumps at the chance to the 29th Connecticut, and we follow his experience from Connecticut to Virginia, including the 29th’s most devastating day at the Battle of Kell House. His letters with his mother, Mary Dolphin Porter show a very human, emotional side of the war that claimed so many lives yet was so transformative.