Connecticut 29th, 30th & 31st Colored Regiments
29th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, Beaufort, South Carolina
- Library of Congress
The Connecticut State Library has a page that lists all people who enlisted in the Connecticut 29th Colored Regiment, the Connecticut 30th Colored Regiment, and the New York 31st Colored Regiment. You can see that here.
As I understand it, 1,646 people of color enlisted in the 29th regiment. Since that was more than was anticipated for a single regiment, 407 of those individuals were split into a new regiment, the 30th, leaving the 29th with 1,239 soldiers.
The 31st regiment was created in April 1864 on Hart Island in New York with 52 enlisted soldiers, all of whom enlisted in Connecticut. In May of 1864, the 30th merged into the 31st regiment. So now the 31st had 459 people, all enlisting in Connecticut. It also means there’s a total of 1698 people of color who enlisted in Connecticut.
So the questions I have are:
The 29th Colored Regiment Monument (New Haven, CT)
Why does the 29th Colored Regiment memorial in New Haven only have 900 names on the walls? According to the records at the State Library, the monument is missing 339 people who were in the 29th.
Why are we not also memorializing the 30th and/or 31st Colored regiment? Those regiments contain an additional 459 people, all of whom enlisted in Connecticut! Is there a Connecticut memorial for them I don't know about?
If there is no other Connecticut memorial, that would mean that if you exclude the 900 soldiers who are memorialized in New Haven, there are another 798 Colored people who are not memorialized anywhere in Connecticut...which is nearly half of the people of color that enlisted in one of these 3 regiments while in Connecticut. Should something be done about that?
I plan to figure this out.
