Honoring Connecticut’s Black Soldiers Of The 29th Regt.
By Kathryn Jorgensen
(September 2008 Civil War News)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — When the monument to the 29th Colored Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, is dedicated on Sept. 20 it will be the first time that the unit has been officially recognized.

Nine hundred African American and Native American free men and former slaves from 120 Connecticut towns joined the regiment, as did men from other states. Organizing began in August 1863, but the 29th didn’t muster in until March 8, 1864, because of the delay in getting white officers. It mustered out Nov. 24, 1865.

The Descendants of the 29th Connecticut Colored Regiment C.V. Infantry Inc. are seeing to it that the regiment won’t be forgotten, according to Jacqueline Buster, chairman of the monument committee.

The dedication ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at Criscuolo Park, the 29th’s original muster and campground, then called Grapevine Point. The monument will be on the spot where Frederick Douglass sent the soldiers off to fight for the Union.

Civil Rights activist Dick Gregory will be the featured speaker. The 54th Massachusetts regiment from Boston will have an encampment.

A 4 p.m. reception will follow. The Amistad Committee will host a paid admission evening reception for monument sculptor Ed Hamilton.

On Sept. 26 students from across Connecticut will recognize the 29th Regiment. The youth dedication program will begin at 10 a.m. where students will meet descendants and members of the 9th Massachusetts Regiment at an encampment.

At 11 a.m. the students will hold a Youth Arm Band Parade. They will wear armbands marked with names of 29th soldiers from their towns. Buster said the armbands will be collected and sealed in a time capsule to be buried next to the monument.

At noon members of the Oneida tribe of New York will put on a reenactment, complete with cannons and muskets, in honor of the regiment. The day will end with tours of the Freedom Schooner Amistad, a replica of the ship that slaves on board commandeered in 1839.

A history of the 29th Connecticut, written by Capt. Henry G. Marshall of Co. I, tells of the regiment’s service at Bermuda Hundred, Petersburg and Fort Harrison and elsewhere. Two of its companies could see Richmond burning as they approached and were the first infantry to enter Richmond after the Confederate government fled in early April.

From there the regiment was sent to guard prisoners at Point Lookout until May 28 when went to Brownsville, Texas. In October the 29th was ordered to Connecticut to muster out, but lack of transportation delayed their arrival to Nov. 24.

Buster, who has been working for a decade to memorialize the regiment, has a personal interest. Her family goes back 10 generations and includes at least three veterans of the 29th.

Interest in the family’s veterans grew 12 years ago after her uncle Albert Mero, the family historian, saw an ad from a descendant looking to form an organization to pay tribute to and create public awareness about the 29th. Family members and other soldiers’ descendants joined.

Members of the new group marched in parades, hosted exhibits, spoke at schools and were featured in a New York Times story.

Buster said that as they learned about the 29th they knew they had to do something to remember the men of color “who were really fighting for freedom and for us to have rights.”

Current president Harrison Mero explained, “When we looked around the state there was nothing that mentioned these men. No monuments that mention them, no statues to them, no churches in their memory.  There was no one to pick up their cause and that’s why we founded the group.”

Tennis coach Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, was in New Haven and heard their story. He planted the idea of a monument. Buster said they weren’t sure at first. The association was not a non-profit, they didn’t have money and some members had trouble just paying dues.

A turning point came 10 years ago when Buster and others attended the Washington, D.C., dedication of the African American Civil War Memorial “Spirit of Freedom” in Washington. Gen. Colin Powell, the speaker that day, encouraged them to think big in memorializing the regiment, as did sculptor Ed Hamilton, who created the Washington memorial.

Hamilton, from Louisville, Ky., was known in New Haven for his Amistad Memorial. He agreed to design a bronze plaque for a granite obelisk to be placed in the park. The plaque depicts colored soldiers holding up and surrounding the state flag.

Everyone agreed the monument should be grander, so Hamilton sketched out eight matching granite obelisks with soldiers’ names and two benches adjacent to the central obelisk on a base of cobblestones.

The $200,000 cost was raised from the state bond commission, the city, towns where veterans lived, fundraising and individual donations.

Buster’s group is developing a curriculum and workbook for schools. They’re looking forward to the dedication and sharing the story of the 29th and hearing from additional descendants.

Information about the regiment and descendants group is at www.thect29th.org. Donations are welcome to help with the educational programs.