Leading Business Men of Fairfield County

viding for their every want. Their society for aiding the soldiers was formed in April, 1861, immediately after the President's first call for troops, and is universally acknowledged to have been the first association of its kind in the country. In August, 1861, the organization was completed and" called the " Ladies' Soldiers' Relief-Society." Its first President was Mrs. Woolsey G. Sterling, who was succeeded by Mrs. Daniel Thacher. During the whole course of the war, Miss Lydia R. Ward was its devoted Secretary. In the first year of its existence the cash receipts were $2,618.21. In addition many thousand articles were sent to the soldiers, and one hundred and forty of their families were assisted with food, clothing and fuel. In the winter of 1863-4, this society conceived and executed the idea of filling a ship with vegetables and other provisions and sending it to all the Connecticut Regi- ments within reach of the Atlantic coast. This noble plan proved eminently suc- cessful, bringing health and joy to many of the soldiers needing and longing for such nourishment. Few local societies in the country were more active in devising and more generous and skillful in carrying out plans for the bodily and mental refresh- ment of the soldiers. The city itself was not inactive. There was contributed in all during the whole course of the war, considerably over $200,000, for the expenses of the government and aid of the soldiers. The good done by the various sources through which the citizens manifested their*love toward the soldiers is inestimable. The sturdy veterans from Bridgeport had a furlough in the early part of 1864, and came home for a short respite and rest. It would be vain to endeavor to describe their reception. After a few weeks of happy reunion, they returned with steadfast hearts to the final grapple with the enemy. The majority of the Bridge- port soldiers were now united, in their various regiments, under Grant and went through one of the most celebrated campaigns in history. The Wilderness, Spott- sylvania Court House, Cold Harbor came and went in rapid succession, quickly thin- ning their ranks and leaving aching hearts all over the country. The Fourteenth particularly distinguished itself again for gallant services. After Petersburg and Richmond were invested it maintained its honorable standing through heavy losses to the very end. Captain William H. Hawley, of Bridgeport, one of the noblest and most admired men in his army corps as well as at home, was slain August 25, 1864, during a gallant charge made by the Fourteenth. The Sixth, Seventh and Ninth were now honorably engaged before Petersburg, the Twelfth was still in the Missis- sippi Valley and the Seventeenth on the coast of South Carolina. Bridgeport lost another of her most honored citizens in Lieutenant Franklin Bartlett, of the Four- teenth, who was shot in the lines before Richmond, February 5th, 1865. Lieutenant Bartlett was very highly esteemed by both his officers and men and had been recom- mended for a captaincy. The Sixth and Seventh Connecticut were engaged in the brilliant operations resulting in the capture of Fort Fisher, under General A. II. Terry, January 13, 1865. For their gallantry, the Bridgeport soldiers in connection with the other brave Con- necticut veterans, received the thanks of Congress and the nation. During the masterly campaigns made by General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, Bridgeport was represented in the Ninth and Twelfth Connecticut Regi- ments, both of whom fought with invincible bravery in the battle of Cedar Creek. Some very spirited fighting was done during the winter of 1863-4, by the Seven- teenth Regiment under Colonel Noble, who was now in charge of a brigade. By a BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. 31 number of skillful marches through the State (Florida), Col. Noble succeeded in maintaining tbe Union interests with great success. During one of these dangerous excursions, Lieutenant Henry Whitney Chatfield was instantly killed in a hand to hand struggle with the enemy. He was dearly loved in the army, where his bravery and noble character had attracted much atten- tion, and no death was more generally or deeply mourned at home. For distin- guished services, Captain "William L. Hubbell of the Seventeenth, from Bridgeport, was now promoted to be the major of the regiment. Another officer who attracted and received honorable mention for his gallant conduct in the campaigns around Petersburg was Adjutant Wm. B. Hincks of the Fourteenth, from Bridgeport. Colonel Noble had the great misfortune to be captured by a band of rebel guer- rillas, December 24, 1864, while going from Jacksonville to St. Augustine. In spite of strenuous efforts made by his men to rescue him, he was imprisoned first at Talla- hassee, Florida, then at Macon, Georgia, and finally in the dreadful misery of Ander- sonville. His imprisonment was a great loss to the brigade he commanded in East Florida, and to all the Union interests in that part of the State. He was not released until April, 1865, and then was detained some time before he was able to rejoin his troops in Florida a short time before their muster out. Of the Seventeenth Re<n- ment, which he commanded, the report of the Adjutant-General of Connecticut says, " the superiority of which in intelligence, morale, courage and endurance was not found in the army." In the last few engagements for the possession of Richmond, and during Lee's hurried retreat to Appomatox, the Bridgeport soldiers were employed in their respective regiments with their usual distinguished valor. Tbe Fourteenth was amono- the honored corps which closed around the last remnants of Lee's " Grand Army " at Appomatox Court House, and witnessed the surrender. The men of" the gallant Fourteenth were the first veterans to arrive home after the war, on June 9th, 1865, under the lead of Wm. B. Hincks, who had been pro- moted for distinguished services to be major. They were given a reception and welcome which could not have been more royal or hearty in its expression. The Seventeenth was the next to arrive, having been somewhat delayed by pro- longed service in the extreme South. They came by way of New Haven, private Elias Howe, Jr., stepping forward, as usual in an emergency, and chartering a special train. The enthusiastic welcome given this, Bridgeport's favorite regiment, can only be appreciated by those who gave and received it. The veterans of the Sixth, Seventh, Twelfth and Ninth arrived in rapid succession, and met with the warmest welcome loving and grateful hearts could render. Those who received their own loved ones in safety now began to realize that the dread watching for the end was over, while those who were sadly bereaved endeavored to hide their tears amid the general rejoicing. The summary of what Bridgeport helped to achieve in the war for the Union can best be appreciated by a comparison of the detailed account of the city's own work here given, with the complete history of the war, showing that there were very few important movements or battles in which its citizens did not take an honorable part. With no little pride and gratitude does the city remember what her noble sons accomplished at Bull's Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Port Hudson, 32 BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. WASHINGTON PARK, EAST BRIDGEPORT. Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Charleston Harbor, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House Cold Harbor, Florida, Petersburg, Five Forks and Appomatox. The record could not be more honorable. Her sons did not so much aspire for high honors as to lay down their lives for liberty and their country. The military record of Brigadier- General William H. Noble, Lieutenant-Colonels Charles Walter and John Speidal, Majors Frederick Frye, William B. Hincks and William L. Hubbell, and of all her soldiers, both commissioned and private, will cast lasting honor on their native city, while the blessed memory of such men as Walter, Hawley, Chatfield, Stevens, Bartlett, and her other martyr sons, will be an incentive to noblest effort as long as Bridgeport continues to exist. As prosperity has come after bitterness and tears, it is most fitting, as well as most inherently valuable to the life of the city itself, to keep the remembrance of what the city owes to her heroes with unfailing love, and to hand down to the children's children this most precious legacy. BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. 33 CHAPTER IV. SINCE THE WAR. The sudden revival of business interests which was almost universal throughout the land during the latter years of the war, had considerable effect on Bridgeport. The vast supplies required by the Government for its struggle set businesses which had become depressed going again at an unnatural and unmaintainable rate, beside creating many new industrial houses. The reaction from the moral strain of the war also resulted in a tendency in all the land to extravagance unprecedented in our history. These factors united in making the first decade after the war a time of wild speculation, of ill-based business operations, and of luxurious living, until the bubble was burst by the great panic of '73. During all this period the cool, clear-minded citizens of Bridgeport, by careful watchfulness succeeded in avoiding the tempting illusions of the time and many of their disastrous effects. The immediate years after the war witnessed a growth, steady but comparatively slow. The tendencies to inflation and abnormal pressure of existing powers were avoided. Little that is wont to attract the historian's pen has happened in these twenty- two years since the war, yet they are some of the most important in Bridgeport's history. As has been remarked, it is hard to draw an interesting or general summary of such periods of " noiseless revolution," and all that now remains is to give some dim conception of the progress which has been made and the manner of its making.