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{ 293 FURTHER READING AND RESEARCH  A huge amount of material related to Connecticut’s experience during the Civil War is available. Much of this is cited in the endnotes of this book. The purpose of this section is not to repeat those notes, but to offer those interested in further reading a few suggestions on where to start, and to suggest additional topics that need more research. Certainly the best source to begin with is William A. Croffut and John M. Morris’s The Military and Civil History of Connecticut during the War of 1861–65 (New York: Ledyard Bill, 1869). Published just a few years after the war, it offers hundreds of pages of detailed information that can be found nowhere else. Although long out of print, it is available online via Google Books, can be downloaded in pdf format, and is searchable by key word. It is a remarkable resource that can be read from the comfort and privacy of one’s own computer. Similarly important is John Niven’s Connecticut for the Union: The Role of the State in the Civil War (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965), published as part of the centennial commemoration. The first broad history of Connecticut and the Civil War since Croffut and Morris’s work, Niven’s book offers a detailed look into the state’s experience, though it is at times challenging to read given its rather haphazard chronology. Still, there is much to be gleaned from this important work. Unfortunately, it is no longer in print and can only be accessed through libraries. Histories of Connecticut regiments abound. Most of these were published within a decade or two of the war and written by members of the regiment. Not only are many available online through Google Books, but the Kessinger Publishing Company has been producing reprints of these histories. A simple Amazon.com search will unearth many works related to particular regiments. To gain a very good, encyclopedic approach to understanding Connecticut regiments—when they were formed, where they fought, and their casualty figures—and similar information about particular towns throughout the state, Blaikie Hines’s Civil War Volunteer Sons of Connecticut (Thomaston, Conn.: American Patriot, 2002) is indispensable. The more personal stories of particular Connecticut soldiers are also readily available. Samuel Fiske’s Mr. Dunn Browne’s Experiences in the Army (Boston: Nichols and Noyes, 1866) is available 294 } Further Reading as a 1998 reprint, edited by Stephen W. Sears, and is also available via Google Books. Fred Lucas’s letters are available in two books: Frederick A. Lucas, Dear Mother from Your Dutiful Son: Civil War Letters, September 22, 1862 to August 18, 1865, Written by Frederick A. Lucas to His Mother, edited by Ernest Barker (Goshen, Conn.: Purple Door Gallery, 2003); and Ernest B. Barker, Fred and Jennie: A Civil War Love Story, with letters edited by Ernest B. Barker, assisted by Anthony J. Barker (Goshen, Conn.: Purple Door Gallery, 2002). John William De Forest’s account of his military service was originally published as essays and then as a book: A Volunteer’s Adventures: A Union Captain’s Record of the Civil War, edited, with notes, by James H. Croushore (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1946). It has been republished (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1970) and is readily available. Indeed, it is the availability of these works and the incredible stories they tell that influenced my decision to use these soldiers’ particular stories. These works are not the only Connecticut soldiers ’ stories available, however. For example, the incredible set of letters by Captain Andrew Upson can be obtained online through the Web site of the Barnes Museum in Southington, Connecticut (http://barnesmuseum .wordpress.com). Any number of the specific topics discussed in this book can be delved into in far greater detail. For politics, J. Robert Lane’s A Political History of Connecticut During the Civil War (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1941) though dated and out of print, is an important resource. For dissent within the state, an important source is Joanna D. Cowden, “The Politics of Dissent: Civil War Democrats in Connecticut,” New England Quarterly 56, no. 4 (December 1983): 538–54. For abolition and its opponents, see David Menschel, “Abolition without Deliverance: The Law of Connecticut Slavery 1784–1848,” Yale Law Journal 111, no. 1 (October 2001): 191–94; John J. O’Connell, “The Abolitionist Movement in Connecticut, 1830–1850” (master’s thesis, Trinity College, 1971); Lawrence Bruser, “Political...

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