Trinity College alumni Griffin Alexander Stedman's grave at Cedar Hill Cemetery, only a mile from the Trinity College Summit Campus. Stedman, Class of 1859, served in the Union Army and died in 1864 due to battle wounds in Petersburg, Virginia, whereupon he was promoted to brigadier-general.

With the number of lives lost, The American Civil War (April 12, 1861–May 26, 1865) was the costliest conflict in American history. Approximately three million men served in the Union and Confederate armies combined, and current estimates indicate that over 750,000 gave their lives, the result of battlefield casualties or disease. There were also many civilian deaths attributable to the war.

There were 105 men affiliated with Trinity involved in the conflict, including alumni and undergraduates who left the College before graduation or completed their education elsewhere. Of the 105, 79 fought for the Union and 26 for the Confederacy; 12 gave their lives for the Union and 6 for the Confederacy. ¹⁾ Service as an officer or enlisted man was spread across different unit types, primarily infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Trinity men were also represented among special staff such as physicians, chaplains, the Quartermaster Corps, Engineers, etc.

A statistical breakdown reveals that the Union side included 26 infantrymen (nine of whom died); three cavalrymen; six artillerymen (two of whom died); seven physicians; and eight chaplains. On the Confederate side there were ten infantrymen (two of whom died; four cavalrymen (one of whom died); two artillerymen; five physicians (one of whom died); and two chaplains (one of whom died). Ten men served in the Union Navy, but none in the Confederate States Navy. Also, as the war went on, several Union officers affiliated with Trinity were appointed to U.S. Colored Infantry regiments. Not surprisingly, many from Trinity who fought on the Union side enlisted in Connecticut volunteer regiments.

In addition, Bishop Brownell, the College’s founding father, had traveled to the South earlier in the 19th century to fulfill churchly duties, and at every opportunity extolled the virtues of a small Episcopal-oriented New England college which offered an excellent education. Such statements were appealing to planters and other well-to-do Southerners, and their sons were frequently represented among the student body prior to 1861. This partly accounts for the sizeable number of alumni and non-graduates who fought for the Confederacy, a phenomenon that occurred at other institutions of higher education in the northeast. An Episcopal College was considered a friendly alternative to Congregationalist Colleges like Yale, which generally supported abolition, or the Presbyterian College Oberlin, which opened in 1833 as a coeducational institution and regularly admitted Black people beginning in 1835.

During the Fall of 1860, students lived in a tight-knit, small community, and “relations…were very close” according to William S. Cogswell, Class of 1861. “While of course the issues of the presidential campaign then pending were freely discussed, there was nothing like a separation into factions and no break in the ties which bound us to our Alma Mater and to each other. None of us realized, in spite of the intense agitation and bitterness attending the election, that the result as determined at the polls would not be accepted. For a long time after the election and even when in certain of the southern states action was taken looking toward secession, we could not believe that war was possible.” Politics aside, “at this time quite a military sentiment was prevalent in Hartford, aroused by the fame attained by the Colt Guard for its proficiency in what was known as the zouave drill” and students were “catching the fever” of military training. ²⁾

After the election of Abraham Lincoln on November 6, 1860, thirteen Trinity students created their own military company, headed by Franklin H. Fowler and William H. Webster, both of the Class of 1861, due to their experience at a military school prior to entering Trinity. The military organization was called the "Graham Guard" after Edward Graham Daves, Professor of Greek and the only Southern member of the Trinity faculty (not to be confused with his younger brother, Graham Daves, Class of 1857). The organization operated only for a few months until June 1861.

After the fall of Fort Sumter in April, “the change in the relations of the students was as sudden and complete as between the North and South.” ³⁾ The South recalled its citizens, including College students, and “all but two” immediately left the College. Those who withdrew “permanently severed their connection with the institution. None of them ever returned to Trinity to complete his studies.” ⁴⁾ Professor Daves took a year's leave of absence and, following, resigned.

Trinity President Samuel Eliot created controversy among Trinity students and the Hartford community by refusing to fly the national colors above the College. Trinity was already under “considerable suspicion in Hartford” of not being “fully in sympathy with the Union cause,” as Trinity “had always had southern students, and these young men had distinguished themselves as campus leaders and had taken enough college honors to have exerted an influence somewhat disproportionate to their numbers.” ⁵⁾ As a result, Trinity began receiving pressure from Hartford residents and there were rumors that a mob might attack and destroy the College. These rumors were so severe that the mayor of Hartford instructed the City Guard to defend the College if the mob attacked. An assembly of Trinity students, led by William S. Cogswell, class of 1861, insisted that Trinity fly the American flag. Eliot refused and instructed the students that, if a mob was to attack, they should “fight, fight them as long as you can.” ⁶⁾ After a second student meeting, Eliot agreed to a compromise in which it was decided that the students would fly the American flag over Brownell Hall instead of Seabury. Of course, at the onset of the war, the American flag was in high demand and “almost every house [was] furnished with one or more flags…there were but comparatively few flags in the country to supply the sudden demand.” According to Cogswell, “we could not find one for sale in the city…then, we called the girls we knew for help, and they did not fail us. Soon we had the Stars and Stripes floating over Seabury Hall and never was a symbol bestowed by fair hands more heartily prized than that home-made flag presented to the College by the women of Hartford.” ⁷⁾ The flag-raising was encompassed by fanfare, songs, addresses by faculty, cheers, and celebration.

The first of two USS Hartford Cannon facing east. The second cannon can be seen in the far-right background. Photo credit: Amanda Matava

A military science course and department were both proposed during the 1862-63 school year, but neither came to fruition. A “McClellan Club” was created during the election cycle of 1864 by students in support of former Union General George B. McClellan, the Democratic candidate for President. In response to this, a “Union Club” was created, “intended to wipe out the stain of disloyalty arising from the formation of the McClellan Club,” and members swore loyalty to Abraham Lincoln.

When word of Lee's surrender reached Hartford, citizens processed down Main street, “headed by Christy's Minstrel band, carriages, and fire steamers. Trinity students came down from the Hill and joined the concourse, singing and blowing horns. That night the College buildings were illuminated.” ⁸⁾

Two cannon from Admiral David Farragut's sloop-of-war flagship, the USS Hartford, were mounted on the main quad in 1950 by President G. Keith Funston '32 to serve as a memorial to the Trinity alumni who fought in the Civil War.

79 attendees of Trinity College served in the Union Army. This list was compiled from “Honor Rolls” which appeared in the Trinity College Ivy in 1892 and 1919. The 1892 Ivy only featured Union dead.

• John S. Phelps, Class of 1832 Colonel of Missouri volunteers, military governor of Arkansas.
• Pliny A. Jewett, Class of 1837 Surgeon and colonel of volunteers.
• John C. Comstock, Class of 1838 (Died Feb. 2, 1862) Captain of Company A, First Connecticut Infantry.
• Benjamin W. Stone, Class of 1838 Chaplain 2nd N.Y. Cavalry

• George J. Geer, Class of 1842 Chaplain, 37th New York Infantry
• Abraham J. Warner, Class of 1842 Chaplain, 12th Illinois Cavalry
• Oliver S. Prescott, Class of 1844 Hospital Chaplain
• Samuel F. Jarvis, Class of 1845 Chaplain, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery
• Louis N. Middlebrook, Class of 1848 Captain, Company D., First Connecticut Cavalry
• Charles W. Abbott, Class of 1849 Paymaster, U.S. Navy
• John P. Abbott, Class of 1849 U.S. Navy
• Logan Brandt, Class of 1849 Private Died 1863

• George S. Burnham, Class of 1850 Colonel, 22nd Conn. Infantry
• William H. Studley, Class of 1850 A.A. Surgeon, U.S.A.
• Henry C. Paxson, Class of 1851 Adjutant, 12th New Jersey and 19th Pennsylvania Infantry.
• Charles Edward Terry, Class of 1851 (Died Feb. 2, 1862) Surgeon, 11th R.I. Infantry
  Born in 1831 in Hartford, Connecticut, Terry graduated from Trinity in 1851 and received his medical degree from the [Columbia] College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1853. A rural physician in Wisconsin, Terry became a surgeon in the 11th Rhode Island Infantry. Due to its limited term of service, the regiment mustered out in July 1863. Terry then served as an assistant surgeon in the 65th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry. Near war’s end he developed inflammation of the brain and died August 4, 1865 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Robert Andrews, Class of 1853 Lieutenant-Colonel, Engineers.
• Charles H. Henshaw, Class of 1853 Captain, 100th New York Infantry
• William H. Williams, Class of 1853 Chaplain, 87th N.Y. Infantry
• William A. Hitchcock, Class of 1854 Chaplain, U.S. Navy
• John F. Mines, Class of 1854 Chaplain, 2nd Maine Infantry, lieutenant-colonel and Bvt. Col. 1st D.C. Cavalry
• George A. Woodward, Class of 1855 Colonel, 22nd Pennsylvania R.C., lieutenant-colonel, 14th Infantry, and brigadier-general in 1904.
• Charles E. Bulkeley, Class of 1856 (Died Feb. 13, 1864) Company E. First Connecticut Heavy Artillery
• Samuel McConihe, Class of 1856 Colonel, 93rd New York Infantry; later made brigadier-general.
• Charles Sumner, Class of 1856 Assistant quarter-master, U.S.A.; colonel First Nevada Infantry.
• William Williams Hays, Class of 1858 (Non-graduate) Surgeon, 6th Cal. Infantry
  Born in 1837 in Sharpsburg, Maryland, Hays transferred to Kenyon College to complete his undergraduate education. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1861, and during his medical studies was on the meteorological staff of the Smithsonian. He entered military service in 1862 and was assistant surgeon at hospitals in the Washington, D. C. area. Later that year Hays was appointed surgeon with the rank of major of the 6th California Volunteers and was stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco. At war’s end he settled in San Luis Obispo and remained there as a doctor until his death in 1901.
• Joseph Hugg, Class of 1858 Acting Surgeon, U.S. Navy
• J. Ewing Mears, Class of 1858 Quarter-master, Volunteers
• Henry H. Pierce, Class of 1858 Major, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, later captain of United States Infantry, First Company
• Strong Vincent, Class of 1858 (Died July 7, 1863) Major general, Pennsylvania Vols.
  Vincent was born in Waterford, Pennsylvania, son of iron foundryman B. B. Vincent and Sarah Ann (née) Strong. He attended Trinity College and Harvard University, graduating in 1859. He practiced law in Erie, Pennsylvania. At the start of the Civil War, Vincent joined the Pennsylvania Militia as an adjutant and first lieutenant of the Erie Regiment. On September 14, 1861, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry and was promoted to colonel the following June. After the death of his regimental commander in the Seven Days Battles (at the Battle of Gaines's Mill), Vincent assumed command of the regiment. He developed malaria on the Virginia Peninsula and was on medical leave until the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. On May 20, 1863, he assumed command of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps, Army of the Potomac, replacing his brigade commander, who resigned after the Battle of Chancellorsville. Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles of the III Corps had deviated from his orders, moving his corps to a position that left undefended a significant terrain feature: Little Round Top. Vincent, without consulting his superior officers, decided that his brigade was in the ideal position to defend Little Round Top, saying “I will take the responsibility to take my brigade there.” While defending the hill, Vincent shouted to his men “Don't give an inch!” A bullet struck him through the thigh and the groin and he fell. Due to the determination of the 20th Maine, the 44th New York, the 140th New York Infantry Regiment, the 83rd Pennsylvania and the 16th Michigan Infantry, the Union line held against the Confederate onslaught. Vincent was carried from the hill to a nearby farm, where he lay dying for the next five days, unable to be transported home due to the severity of his injury. Vincent died on July 7, and either on his deathbed or posthumously was promoted to brigadier-general.
• Charles M. Conyngham, Class of 1859 Major of 143rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, later lieutenant-colonel
• Griffin Alexander Stedman, Class of 1859 (Died Aug. 6, 1864) Colonel of 11th Conn. Infantry, later brigadier-general
  Stedman was born in Hartford, Connecticut on January 6, 1838, to Griffin Alexander and Mary (Shields) Stedman. He graduated from Hartford High School and from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1859. After graduation, he practiced law in Philadelphia. When the Civil War began he joined the Washington Greys in Philadelphia. He returned to Hartford and joined the First Regiment Colt's Revolving Rifles formed by gunmaker, Samuel Colt. The First Regiment reformed and became the 5th Connecticut Infantry Regiment with Stedman commissioned as captain of company I. Stedman and the 5th Regiment were mustered into service on July 22, 1861. On November 27, 1861, he was commissioned major in the 11th Connecticut Infantry Regiment. On June 11, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and returned with the regiment to the Army of the Potomac and fought in the Battle of Antietam. At Antietam, he had command of the right wing of the regiment in the attack on the stone bridge and was wounded in the leg. He became Colonel on September 25, 1862, and was in command during the Battle of Fredericksburg. In January 1864, the regiment re-enlisted and on its return to the front was assigned to the Eighteenth Corps. On May 9, his troops were engaged at the Battle of Swift Creek and on May 16 at the Battle of Drewery's Bluff where he lost almost 200 men. In late May, he commanded the brigade and fought at Cold Harbor. He was mortally wounded by a bullet in his side during the Battle of Petersburg, Virginia, on August 5, 1864, and died on August 6, 1864. Major General Edward Ord attempted to have Stedman promoted to brevet brigadier general before his death but instead it was awarded posthumously. He was originally interred in Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, Connecticut and was re-interred in the family plot in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut on May 20, 1875. The sarcophagus is carved with his ornamental sword, cap and belt, inscribed with the battles he fought in and the words “Brave, just, generous and pure, without fear and reproach.” There is also a statue of him in the Barry Square area of Hartford. A statue in his likeness can be found at the Campfield Memorial Grounds on Campfield avenue in Hartford.

• William G. Davies, Class of 1860 22nd Regiment, New York Volunteers
• Theodore C. Glazier, Class of 1860 Sergeant, Company D, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Major of 46th U.S.C. I.
• William Henry Mallory, Class of 1860 Captain of Company A, 1st Conn. Cavalry, Major of the 2nd N.Y. Cavalry, Colonel of Zouaves.
  Born in 1840 in Watertown, Connecticut, Mallory graduated from Trinity and was looking forward to a career in law. When war broke out he volunteered for military service and initially served as an aid to Colonel Abram Duryea, commanding officer of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, also known as Duryea’s Zouaves. In 1861, Mallory was detached and authorized to raise in Connecticut a squadron of cavalry to be designated the 1st Squadron, Connecticut Cavalry. However, this squadron soon merged with the 2nd New York Cavalry and thereafter the two were known as the Harris Light Cavalry. Mallory rose from captain to the rank of major and he and his unit saw prolonged service in Virginia and Maryland including involvement in the battles at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Soon thereafter he was forced to resign his commission due to poor health. Mallory entered the manufacturing business in Bridgeport, Connecticut and developed an improved design for screw propellers and torpedoes. He died in 1882.
• Enoch V. Stoddard, Class of 1860 Surgeon, 65th New York Infantry
• Arthur W. Allyn, Class of 1861 Captain and Bvt. Major of the 16th U.S.I.
  Allyn originally enlisted in the First Connecticut Infantry on 25 April 1861 and was mustered-in Rifle Company A as a Private. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, Sixteenth United States Infantry on 14 May 1861. He was breveted Captain on 31 December 1861, receiving the full rank of a Captain in the Regular Army on 24 June 1864. Allyn earned the brevet rank of Major on 13 March 1865 and remained in the Army until 30 April 1880.
• William Sterling Cogswell, Class of 1861 Major of the 5th Conn. Infantry
  Born in 1840 in Jamaica, New York, Cogswell graduated from Trinity and was preparing for a career in law when war broke out. In July 1861, he mustered in as a 1st Lieutenant in Company I of the 5th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry but the following month transferred to the Signal Service. Cogswell was promoted to captain in November 1861, to major in August 1863, and to lieutenant colonel in November 1864. He is credited with devising a system for using flags as a means of communication between detachments. Cogswell and his unit served in the Army of the Potomac up to and including Gettysburg, were with General Hooker at Chattanooga, were on the March to the Sea with General Sherman, and then marched through the Carolinas and Virginia at the close of the conflict. After the war Cogswell pursued a career in law and died in 1935.
• Francis M. Hawley, Class of 1861
• Coley James, Class of 1861 1st lieutenant of Company H, 1st Conn. Cavalry
• Frederick A. Miller, Class of 1861 Acting master, United States Navy
• Bankson T. Morgan, Class of 1861 Captain, U.S. Sharpshooters, lieutenant-colonel, 54th New York Infantry
• Augustus Morse, Jr., Class of 1861 Private
• Edward C. Norris, Class of 1861
  Captain in 71st Pennsylvania Infantry. Died May 19, 1863
  Norris died “during the desparate fighting in the Wilderness.”
• Albert E. Sumner, Class of 1861 Surgeon, U.S. Navy
• William H. Webster, Class of 1861 1st lieutenant of Company I, 5th Connecticut Infantry, 1st lieutenant of Company C, 12th Vet. R.C.

• Charles S. Hale, Class of 1862 Chaplain, Fifth Vermont Volunteers
• George W. Hugg, Class of 1862 (Died July 30, 1864)
  Second-lieutenant, Company A, 25th Connecticut Infantry. Hugg died in the hospital from exposure while a prisoner.
• William D. Penfield, Class of 1862 Captain's Clerk, U.S. Navy
• Francis S. Pinckney, Class of 1862
• Heber Smith, Class of 1862 (Died Aug. 9, 1862) Adjutant, Fifth Connecticut Infantry.
  “Smith yielded his life in the memorable charge made by the First Brigade of the First Division of Banks' Corps at Cedar Mountain.” ⁹⁾
• James W. Clark, Class of 1863 Acting assistant paymaster, U.S. Navy
• George F. Ellis, Class of 1863 Acting third assistant engineer, U.S. Navy
• Richard F. Goodman, Class of 1863 Acting Assistant Paymaster, U.S. Navy
• Thomas M. Ludlow, Class of 1863 Ensign, U.S. Navy
• John J. McCook Jr., Class of 1863 2nd lieutenant, 1st Virginia Infantry
  John James McCook was born on February 4, 1843 in New Lisbon, Ohio. He was the fifth son and sixth child of John James McCook and Catherine Sheldon McCook. McCook began his studies at Jefferson College but soon after the American Civil War began, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company D of the 1st (West) Virginia Infantry Regiment (Three Months Service) on May 15, 1861. Records indicate that McCook left the army when his regiment's three-month term of service expired later that year. After leaving the army, McCook enrolled at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated in 1863. He then enrolled at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, graduating in 1866. During the same year, McCook married Eliza Sheldon Butler in 1866. In 1883, he became professor of modern languages at Trinity College, Hartford, a position he held until his death in 1927. McCook became a nationally known social reformer, and his groundbreaking research, studies, reports, and speeches were among the first in America to address alcoholism, public education, homelessness, voter fraud, prostitution, disabled veterans, orphans and other issues. Trinity's John J. McCook Professorship in Modern Languages was endowed in his honor. McCook was a member of the “Fighting McCooks,” fifteen family members who served the Union during the Civil War. McCook's father and five sons who served in the war were known as the “Tribe of John.” His uncle and eight cousins who served in the war were known as the “Tribe of Dan.” More men from the McCook family served the Union during the Civil War than any other family in the nation.

• Jerome G. Atkinson, Class of 1864
• Daniel Perkins Dewey, Class of 1864 (Died April 14, 1863) 2nd lieutenant of Company A, 25th Conn. Infantry
  Dewey served as a Lieutenant in the Twenty-Fifth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. He died in action during the Battle at Irish Bend, Louisiana. After his death, his classmate, Thomas Reeves Ash, published a five-stanza eulogy in the Hartford Courant.
• Edward Crafts Hopson, Class of 1864 (Died Oct. 19, 1864) Corporal, Company D, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
  Born in 1842 in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Hopson entered the College in 1860 but left in 1862 to enlist in Company D of the 19th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. The 19th soon became the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery. A corporal, Hopson was preparing to be commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant when he was killed at the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on October 19, 1864. He received a posthumous honorary degree.
• Robert W. Huntington, Class of 1864 Captain, U.S. Navy
• Fordham Morris, Class of 1864 1st lieutenant of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery, later made an adjutant general of artillery.
• Ira St. Clair Smith, Class of 1864 1st lieutenant, Company C., 31st Connecticut Infantry
• Charles M. Strong, Class of 1864
• Lemuel H. Welles, Class of 1864 1st Lieutenant, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry
• Franklin Hayes, Class of 1865 (Died Sept. 30, 1864) Corporal in Company K, 16th Connecticut Infantry.
  Died in Andersonville Prison.
• Edgar Bartow Lewis, Class of 1865 (Died Sept. 6, 1863) Sergeant, Company D, Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
  Died “as a result of “exposure and hardship.”
• William H. Lewis, Class of 1865 Captain, Company B, Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery
• Charles W. Munroe, Class of 1865 1st Lieutenant, Fourth Rhode Island Infantry.

Twenty-six attendees of Trinity College served in the Confederate Army, including the following selected biographies, compiled by former Trinity College Archivist Peter J. Knapp.

• Rev. Lucius Henry Jones, Class of 1852, M.A. 1855 (Died October 10, 1863) Cavalry, Chaplain
  Born in 1828 in Claremont, New Hampshire, Jones graduated from Trinity in 1852 and then pursued theological studies at Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown. Receiving his theology degree in 1855, he was soon ordained deacon and served parishes in Texas. Jones was ordained priest in 1859 by the Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk, Bishop of Louisiana and later a Confederate Army general, and on the outbreak of war in 1861 became chaplain of the 1st Regiment of Sibley’s Cavalry Brigade in Texas. The regiment became depleted save for a few men, and in 1863, Jones became chaplain of the 4th Texas Cavalry. He died October 10, 1863 in Washington, Louisiana as a result of wounds previously received but only partly healed.
• Graham Daves, Class of 1857 Infantry
  Graham Daves was born in New Bern, North Carolina on July 16th 1836, the fifth of six children of John Pugh Daves, a planter in that town. Graham Daves received his general education at the New Bern Academy. In 1851, he became a cadet at the Maryland Military Academy at Oxford, and entered Trinity College in Hartford CT in 1853, where his older brother, Edward Graham Daves, was Professor of Greek. On July 16th, 1861 Graham Daves joined the Confederacy in the 12th NC Volunteers/22nd Infantry. In 1862, he was commissioned Assistant Adjutant General with the rank of Captain and stationed at Wilmington, NC. In July of 1862, Graham Daves was promoted to the rank of Major and ordered to VA. In the Summer of 1863, Major Graham Daves was sent to Mississippi and became the Assistant Adjutant General of a division in the Army of Gen. Joseph E Johnston. Graham Daves was the among the troops of Gen. Johnston who surrendered near Greensboro NC; he was paroled in 1863. After the Civil War, in 1865, Graham Daves became a member of the large commission Arm of DeRosset & Co.-general commission merchants, and was general agent of the W. & W. Railroad Company at Charleston. On account of his health and for other causes, Graham Daves left the railroad service and returned to New Bern, N.C., devoting the remainder of his life mainly to literary pursuits and preserving North Carolina history, the study of the colonial, Revolutionary, and the Confederate history of his native state. He died in 1902 from heart
• William McNeill Whistler, Class of 1857 Non-graduate, MD
  Born in 1836 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the brother of the artist James McNeill Whistler, William Whistler left Trinity to become a medical apprentice for a year before studying medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical School from 1858 to 1860. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861 as assistant surgeon in the Richmond area and then served for the remainder of the war with Orr’s (South Carolina) Rifles. He saw action during the prolonged Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia (May 1864) where he was cited for bravery. Toward the end of the war he was detached to carry dispatches to London and was overseas when the war came to a close. Whistler pursued further medical studies in Paris and London, and by 1868 was a member of the College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians, specializing in diseases of the throat and nose. He died in London in 1900.
• Hamilton Claverhouse Graham, Class of 1861 Non-graduate, Infantry
  Born in 1840 in Littleton, North Carolina, Graham transferred from Trinity to the University of North Carolina from which he graduated in 1861. At the commencement of hostilities he enlisted as a private in the North Carolina State Artillery. He entered Confederate service in July 1861 when he mustered in as Sergeant-Major of Company I, 22nd Regiment, North Carolina Infantry. He was promoted to lieutenant and severely wounded at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, Virginia, part of the Seven Days’ Battle, on June 27, 1862. He then received promotion to captain of Company E, 7th North Carolina Infantry in February 1863, but the severity of his wound prevented him from undertaking further battlefield service. He was briefly Judge Advocate of General Court Marshall and then resigned his commission in December 1863. After the war Graham was a planter for several years in Alabama and then relocated to Selma where he was a newspaper editor until his death in 1900.
• Armand Larmar deRosset, Class of 1862
  Born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1842, deRosset left Trinity to enlist in the 18th North Carolina Infantry in April 1861. He soon transferred as a lieutenant to Company H, 3rd North Carolina Infantry and was engaged in hostilities in the Richmond area. Following special service in Virginia, deRosset served as Provost Marshall in Wilmington. He then was appointed captain of Company B, 2nd North Carolina Infantry which served as part of a battalion at Fayetteville, North Carolina providing guard duty for an arsenal. deRosset then served at Fort Cashwell in defense of Wilmington and on March 16, 1865 was severely wounded at the Battle of Averasboro (North Carolina). Left for dead on the battlefield, he was saved by Union doctors and eventually paroled. After the war he went into the mercantile business with his father and brother and was an accountant from 1888 to his death in 1910.
• Walter E. Bondurant, Class of 1863. Surgeon
  
• Rev. Edward Wooten, Class of 1864
  Sergeant or 1st Lieutenant of Company B of the Fifth North Carolina Cavalry Regiment.
  Son of Shadrack 'Shade' and Mary Elizabeth Wooten of Pitt Co., N.C., Wooten attended the Episcopal Seminary in Alexandria, VA. He left Trinity College shortly into his freshman year (1861) to enlist in the Confederate Army. After the Civil war, he added an extra 't' to his last name, spelling it 'Wootten.' In 1915, the Tripod reported that he was serving a small mission in Wilmington, N.C., and is buried in Oakdale Cemetery there.
• Edward S. deRosset, Class of 1864 (Killed in battle)
  
• William Hall Turner, Class of 1864 (Died Jan. 9, 1864) Non-graduate, Cavalry
  From Baltimore, Maryland, Turner was prepared for Trinity at St. Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire, from which he graduated in August 1860. He had family roots in Virginia and postponed attending Trinity to serve in the 43rd Virginia cavalry, an elite unit known as Mosby’s Partisan Rangers, commanded by Colonel John S. Mosby. Turner’s death occurred on January 9, 1864, in Loudoun Heights, Virginia, near Harper’s Ferry, the result of one of the ‘guerilla’ raids conducted at that time which harassed Union forces in Northern Virginia.

Text taken from Civil War Manuscript Project by the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.

Text taken from “Trinity College and the Civil War: The Men Who Served” (2012) by Peter J. Knapp.

"Bringing Back the Big Guns; Trinity College Rebuilds Cannons' Carriages so They Can Return to Quad," The Hartford Courant, 11/15/2006.

History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 129-134.

The Trinity Ivy, 1919, pp. 168-172.

"DEGREE CONFERRED AT TRINITY COLLEGE: FOUNDERS' DAY SEES DEGREE GIVEN TO BISHOP PADDOCK Trustee Coggswell Tells of Trinity During Civil War KEEN INTEREST SHOWN IN HIS ADDRESS," The Hartford Courant, 11/02/1901.

The Trinity Tablet, June 1908.

The Trinity Tablet, April 1908.