The gold-domed marble and granite Victorian Gothic building, opened in 1878, is adorned with spires, statues, medallions, bas-reliefs, stained glass, and stenciling. It houses the legislative chambers and the Governor’s office. Historic displays related to the Civil War include a model of Civil War Admiral David G. Farragut’s flagship Hartford and the wooden figurehead from the original ship, the statue of Civil War Governor William Buckingham, the Forlorn Soldier Statue, the Cannonball tree, the Gun Wheel of the First Light Battery of Connecticut Volunteers, a plaque honoring Ulysses S. Grant, a plaque commemorating the Gettysburg address, the Prudence Crandall Statue, and the battle flags of Connecticut regiments. The interior of the building will be covered in the next post. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut has an online virtual tour of the interior (link). During the fall 2013 semester at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Dr. Matthew Warshauer’s History 501 students completed a semester-long project that focused on the monuments and memorials from the Civil War era in and around the state capitol in Hartford, Connecticut (link). The exterior of the building and the grounds are covered below.

Andersonville Boy Civil War Prisoners Memorial. The statue below memorializes the many Connecticut prisoners of war who suffered and died at the Andersonville, Georgia prison. This is the second casting of the monument. The first casting is at the Andersonville National Cemetery. It is the work of sculptor Bela Pratt. Pratt (1867-1917) was born in Norwich, Connecticut, and at age 16 entered the Yale School of Fine Arts. He later studied with Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Paris. Nationally famous, Pratt is known in Connecticut for his statue of Nathan Hale. R.C. Sturgis of Boston is the architect of the bench design for which the statue and pedestal are the central vertical element. The figure is a young man dressed in what most Union infantrymen wore throughout the conflict: sack coat open at the collar; trousers; brogans; and forage cap (but lacking musket and accoutrements).

“The Petersburg Express“- A large (13″) seacoast mortar mounted on a granite pedestal with bronze plaques, dedicated to 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. The 13” mortar is on wheels mounted on I beams, the whole surrounded by a saw-toothed metal edge. Three cannonballs are under the front of the gun, four at the back. A long curved rod with eyelets at its ends is attached to the left front of the gun, extending upward and forward. The plaque states that the mortar was used by the 1st CT Heavy Artillery in front of Petersburg in 1864-1865. It was mounted on a railway car so it could move from one position to another.

Pictures of the “Petersburg Express” also known as the “Dictator” during the war are shown below. The gun was manned by the 1st CT Heavy Artillery.

Austin Sullivan researched the monument for Dr. Matthew Warshauer’s History Course (link). He presents evidence that although the mortar that makes up part of the monument may have been used by the 1st CT it is likely not the mortar known as the “Dictator” or Petersburg Express” shown in the above pictures.