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. Trinity men saw their share of service with several making the supreme sacrifice.

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. 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.

The American Civil War disrupted several aspects of Trinity College during its duration. In the school year of 1860-61, out of 70 Trinity students, eight were from the South. Registration fell the following year to 43. In the 1862-63 school year, eight students were listed as “on leave in the National Service.” While there was a drop in enrollment at the beginning of the war, there was no considerable rise in enrollment after it ended. Colleges across the country saw the same wartime decline in enrollment that Trinity did.

After the election of Abraham Lincoln, 13 Trinity students created the "Graham Guard," named after Edward Graham Daves, Professor of Greek and the only Southern member of the Trinity faculty. Most of these students enlisted in the Union Army. After their enlistment and the recall of Southern students by their seceded home states, Daves took an unpaid year of absence and then resigned.

Trinity President Samuel Eliot created controversy among Trinity students and the larger Hartford population by refusing to fly the American flag above the College. 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 be prepared to fight. 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.

The first of two USS Hartford Cannons facing east, away from the Brownell statue, and toward the city of Hartford. 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, and members swore loyalty to Abraham Lincoln.

When word of the South's surrender reached Trinity, students joined the Hartford procession and the College's buildings were lit up.

Today, one of two cannons from the Union 1858 steamship the USS Hartford on the main quad has a plaque commemorating the Trinity men who served as Civil War soldiers, courtesy of President G. Keith Funston '32. The plaque reads:

In memory of the Trinity men who fought for the principles in which they believed with the Union and Confederate forces in the Civil War and of those who gave “the last full measure of devotion.”

The Trinity Student Government Association adopted a motion to remove the plaque in November 2021 and place it in the Watkinson Library College Archives. “To suggest the Confederacy fought for the right principles,” stated SGA President Jederick Estrella '22, “stands as an oxymoron to stances Trinity has historically taken in the past and even recently with their commitment to an accurate portrayal of Trinity's history in association with Slavery through the creation of the Primus Project.” However, the plaque remains on the cannon as of 2023.

81 attendees of Trinity College served in the Union Army and 15 were a part of the wartime graduating classes. Below, see a selection of biographies.

Charles Edward Terry, Class of 1851 (Infantry – MD – deceased August 4, 1865)
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.

William Williams Hays, Class of 1858 (Non-graduate – MD)
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.

Griffin Alexander Stedman, Class of 1859.
Brigadier-general. Died in 1864.

William Sterling Cogswell, Class of 1861 (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.

William Henry Mallory, Class of 1860 (Cavalry)
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.

Daniel P. Dewey, Class of 1863
Lieutenant. Killed in Louisiana.
After the death of Daniel P. Dewey, his classmate, Thomas Reeves Ash, published a five-stanza eulogy in the Hartford Courant.

Edward Crafts Hopson, Class of 1864 (Non-graduate – Artillery – deceased October 19, 1864)
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.

Franklin Hayes, Class of 1865
Died in Andersonville Prison.

Edgar Bartow Lewis, Class of 1865
Died as a result of “exposure and hardship.”

24 attendees of Trinity College served in the Confederate Army, including the following selected biographies.

Rev. Lucius Henry Jones ’52, MA ’55 (Cavalry, Chaplain – deceased October 10, 1863)
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.

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 ’61 (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.

Walter E. Bondurant, Class of 1863.
Surgeon.

Edward Wooten.
Captain of Company B of the Fifth North Carolina Regiment.

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.

Edward S. deRosset, Class of 1864
Killed in battle.

William Hall Turner ’64 (Non-graduate – Cavalry – deceased January 9, 1864)
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 “Trinity College and the Civil War: The Men Who Served” (2012) by Peter J. Knapp.

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

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