Local Author/Historian to Give Presentation on Civil War Soldiers

The Avon Historical Society is pleased to present local resident, historian and author John Banks, who will discuss his new book Hidden History of Connecticut Union Soldiers (2015) on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 1 p.m. in the Alsop Community Room of the Avon Free Public Library, 281 Country Club Road. It is open to the public, sponsored by the library.

Banks, author of Connecticut Yankees at Antietam (2013) and a well-known blogger on the Civil War, will share research on the lives of men and boys whose stories have been pushed into the shadows of history, for example:

• A 16th Connecticut chaplain, who, as a prisoner of war, boldly disregarded a Rebel commander’s order forbidding him to pray aloud for President Lincoln.
• Brothers from Connecticut who died. At least forty sets of brothers from the state perished of battlefield wounds or disease and, stunningly, three families each lost three sons.
• A 7th Connecticut private who was tormented by the ghost of a comrade, whom he had murdered in battle.
• Seven soldiers from Connecticut, survivors of the horrors of Antietam and Andersonville, who drowned two weeks after Lee surrendered to Grant when their ship collided with another on the Potomac River.

For those who know John, he dives deep in to the personal lives and struggles of Connecticut’s soldiers who spent up to four years fighting in the country’s longest conflict.

Copies of this new book will be available for purchase and signing. The cost for each book is $22.

In addition, pre-eminent Civil War historian Ed Bearss, will return to Avon to give a presentation entitled “The Vicksburg Campaign, Grant’s Military Masterpiece,” on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016 in Brown Auditorium at Avon Old Farms School, 500 Old Farms Road.

Bearss will discuss, in his own popular engaging style, the campaign that occurred between March and July of 1863 which was a series of maneuvers and battles directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold by defeating Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton’s forces stationed there.

Mr. Bearss’s presentation is organized and sponsored by Avon Old Farms School in collaboration with the Avon Historical Society. It is also open to the public.