ASCH

Connecticut at War

Friday, November 13, 2009 – Saturday, November 14, 2009

Connecticut State Library

Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory

Manchester Community College

The Association for the Study of Connecticut History, Connecticut Militia Heritage Committee, Connecticut State Library, and Manchester Community College are pleased to present a one and one- half day conference on the experiences of Connecticut people with wars, spanning more than 350 years. The meeting is being held at the Connecticut State Library and Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory on Friday, November 13, 2009 and Manchester Community College on Saturday, November 14, 2009.

The conference will begin on Friday, November 13 with an opening program featuring Tom Callinan, Connecticut’s “1^st Official State Troubadour” and Kevin Johnson with his moving portrayal of a former slave, “Jordan Freeman: The Fight to Set a People Free.” It will be followed by tours, a keynote by David Corrigan on the 100^th anniversary of the Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory, a plenary session on the Connecticut National Guard in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and a reception at the Officers’ Club of Connecticut.

Researchers will be discussing a variety of war related topics from the 17^th to the 21^st centuries on the Saturday portion of the program at Manchester Community College. The presentations will reflect several perspectives, including those of academic scholars, graduate students, historical society personnel, independent historians, and participants. The program features sessions on 17^th century warfare, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Cold War, and 21^st century conflicts. Some papers are autobiographical or biographical in focus, while others concern home front activities, wartime dissent, citizen soldiers, and veterans.

This conference is far reaching and expands beyond the bounds of anything previously attempted by any of the sponsoring organizations. It contains programs of interest to all Connecticut history enthusiasts and provides a unique opportunity for those interested in any aspect of wartime activity in this State to meet and discuss their common interests.

Conferences of this scope and magnitude are the result of the hard work of many people. Special thanks, however, are due to Connecticut State Librarian Kendall Wiggin, George W. Ripley III, chair of the Connecticut Militia Heritage Committee, and Manchester Community College and MCC President Dr. Gena Glickman for hosting and supporting this conference.

We are also extremely grateful to the Connecticut Humanities Council for its continued support of this and other ASCH programs.

Guocun Yang President, ASCH

Friday, November 13

11:30 – 12:30 Registration – Connecticut State Library

12:00 – 1:30    Opening Plenary Session, Memorial Hall, Connecticut State Library
                      Concert: Tom Callinan, Connecticut’s 1^st “Official State Troubadour,” “Beyond
                      Yankee Doodle – Musical Threads of Our American Heritage”
                      Welcome: Kendall Wiggin, Connecticut State Librarian
                      Kevin Johnson, Connecticut State Library, “Jordan Freeman: The Fight to
                      Set a People Free”

1:30 – 2:30 Tours

                       1. Colt Collection at Museum of Connecticut History, Patrick Smith
                       2. Civil War monuments on Capitol grounds, Dean Nelson
                       3. State Armory Museum, George W. Ripley III

1:30 – 5:00 Registration – Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory

2:45 – 3:15      Keynote – Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory
                      David Corrigan, Museum of Connecticut History, “The Connecticut State
                      Armory, 1909-2009”

3:30 – 5:15      Plenary Session – Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory
                      FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM SINCE 9/11

                      Chair: Lt. Col. Spyros Spanos, Connecticut Army National Guard
                      Lt. Col. Brian Burger, Connecticut Air National Guard, “Air National Guard
                    Support of Counter SCUD Operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom”
                      Col. Thomas E. Boland, Connecticut Army National Guard, “The 1109^th Aviation
                      Classification Repair Activity Depot in Southeast Asia – Providing Multi-National Support”
                      Lt. Col. Steven Gilbert, Connecticut Army National Guard, “The 102^nd in Afghanistan”
                      Col. Mark Russo, Connecticut Army National Guard, “Embedded Trainers in Operation Enduring Freedom”

5:15 – 7:00 Reception – Officers’ Club of Connecticut

Saturday, November 14

7:45 – 8:45 Registration and Refreshments – Manchester Community College

8:45 – 10:00    Plenary Session
                      Presentation of Linsley and Babbidge Awards
                      Nancy H. Steenburg

Keynote:         Col. Ronald P. Welch, Connecticut Army National Guard, “Advising the Afghan National Army”

Break 10:00 – 10:10

I. CONCURRENT SESSIONS 10:10-12:00

1. CONNECTICUT IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

Chair: Col. John H. Grasso, Connecticut Army National Guard
John-Eric Nelson, Independent Historian, “Connecticut Troops in the 1758 Battle of Fort Ticonderoga”
Kenneth C. Ebbitt, University of Connecticut, “Israel Putnam: Early American Hero”
Joseph Avitable, University of Rochester, “Connecticut’s West Indian Trade during the Seven Years War”

2. REVOLUTIONARY WAR BIOGRAPHY

Chair: Katherine Hermes, Central Connecticut State University
Virginia DeJohn Anderson, University of Colorado, “The Strange Case of Moses Dunbar, Connecticut Loyalist”
Karyl Evans, Karyl Evans Productions LLC, “Filming Noah Webster’s Revolution”
Robert Imholt, Albertus Magnus College, “A Tale of Two Chaplains: Timothy Dwight and Joel Barlow”

3. CONNECTICUT IN THE WAR OF 1812

Chair: Peter P. Hinks, Independent Historian
John H. Chatfield, Trinity College, “The Limits of Patriotism, ‘the Commands of Conscience’:
Dissenting Federalists and ‘Mr. Madison’s War,’ 1812-1815”
Richard Radune, Independent Historian, “Connecticut’s Reaction to the British Blockade of
Long Island Sound during the War of 1812”
Nancy H. Steenburg, University of Connecticut/Avery Point, “An Early History of the 1814 Attack
on Stonington by F. M. Caulkins, Based on Eyewitness Accounts”

4. SOURCES FOR STUDYING CONNECTICUT WAR HISTORY

Chair: Diana R. Barnard, St. Joseph College
Linda Hocking and Catherine Fields, Litchfield Historical Society, “Connecticut Hidden History:
Unknown War Collections in Local Historical Societies”
Matthew Warshauer and Michael Sturges, Central Connecticut State University, “‘Soldiers
Heart’: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among Connecticut Civil War Veterans”

5. CIVIL WAR PERSPECTIVES

Chair: Robert G. Carroon, New England Civil War Museum and Library
Dean Nelson, Museum of Connecticut History, “Connecticut Yankees; Likenesses from the War of Rebellion”
Robert Grandchamp, Rhode Island College, “‘I will die as a man’: The Remarkable Life and
Civil War Career of Lieutenant George Lee Gaskell of Plainfield.”
Kathleen Craughwell-Varda, Conservation ConneCTion, and Faline Schneiderman-Fox,
Historical Perspectives, Inc., “Copperheads in Connecticut: Civil War Dissent in Fairfield County”

6. THE HOME FRONT DURING WORLD WARS I AND II

Chair: Bruce M. Stave, University of Connecticut
Elaine Weiss, Independent Historian, “Cultivating the Soothing Weed: The Women’s Land
Army in Connecticut in World War I”
Kristen N. Keegan, University of Connecticut, “World War I and Industrial Change in Bridgeport, Connecticut”
Richard Hanley, Quinnipiac University, “The Hidden Home Front: Connecticut during World War II”

7. THE CONNECTICUT VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT AND THE PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ON WAR

Eileen Hurst, Director, Veterans History Project, Central Connecticut State University, Introduction to the Project
Timothy Jones, Briana McGuckin, Research Assistants, “Technical and Learning Processes, A Student’s Perspective”
Kjell Tollefsen, Helicopter Pilot, Personal account, “Flying a Huey in ‘Nam’”
Linda Spoonster Schwartz, Nurse, Personal account, “Nursing Casualties of War”

Buffet Luncheon 12:00 – 1:15

Cheney Room

II. CONCURRENT SESSIONS 1:15 – 2:45

8. REVOLUTIONARY WAR PERSPECTIVES - I

Chair: Crawford C. Westbrook, Independent Historian
Edward Baker, New London County Historical Society, “Privateering Out of New London in the Revolutionary War”
William Fothergill, Central Connecticut State University, “The Military, the Musket, and Manhood: African American
Soldiers’ Quest for an Accepted Identity”

9. CITIZEN SOLDIERS

Chair: Bruce P. Stark, Connecticut State Library
Sgt. Howard Miller, First Company Governor’s Horse Guard, “Tell the Story of the Glory:
Connecticut’s First Co. Governor’s Horse Guard Through Four Centuries”
Gary Lord, Norwich University, “Alden Partridge’s Influence on Military Education and
Training in Connecticut, 1825-1865”

10. CIVIL WAR HOME FRONT - I

Chair: Carol Maturo Ward, Independent Historian
James E. Brown, Central Connecticut State University, “Guns and Butter: How Connecticut
Financed its Expenses during the Civil War”
David Naumec, Clark University, “‘His Terrible Swift Sword;’ Connecticut’s Arms Industry in the Civil War Era"

11. AMERICA’S RISE TO GREAT POWER

Chair: Allen M. Ward, University of Connecticut
David Corrigan, Museum of Connecticut History, “Remembering Maine: Connecticut in the Spanish-American War”
Mark Albertson, Independent Historian, “‘They’ll Have to Follow You!’ The Battleship Connecticut and the
Great White Fleet”

12. LOBBYING FOR VETERANS

Chair: Mary Donohue, Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism
Mark Stepsis, Fordham University, “The Grand Army of the Republic and the Drive for Connecticut Veterans Benefits”
Mark H. Jones, Connecticut State Library, “‘They Stood Side by Side with White Troops’: Ending Segregation in the
Connecticut National Guard”

13. CONNECTICUT LABOR AND WAR IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Chair: Jeremy Brecher, Independent Historian
Cecelia Bucki, Fairfield University, “Ethnicity and Class in World War I Bridgeport, 1915-1919”
Ferdinando Fasce, University of Genoa, Italy, “Singing and Morale-Building on the Shop Floor in World War I Waterbury”

Joan Cavanagh, Greater New Haven Labor History Association, “The Lessons of War: Electric Boat in New
London County, 1939-1945”

14. WAR STORIES

Chair: George W. Ripley III, Connecticut Militia Heritage Committee
Dennis Mannion, Independent Historian, “Khe Sanh, 1968 – Hill 861”
Charles Della Rocco, Connecticut State Supreme Court Police, “A Leg in an Airborne World, Operation Just Cause, 1989-1990”

III. CONCURRENT SESSIONS 3:00 – 4:30

15. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY WARFARE

Chair: Paul Grant-Costa, Lewis Walpole Library
Katherine Grandjean, Wellesley College, “The Afterlives of Pequot War Veterans”
Major Jason Warren, United States Military Academy, “Connecticut Unscathed, An Examination of Connecticut
Colony’s Success during King Philip’s War, 1675-1676”

16. NEW LONDON DURING WARTIME

Chair: Patricia M. Schaefer, Independent Historian
Douglas C. Conroy, Trinity College, “Let Me Count the Ways: A Compendium of the Subterfuges and Pretexts
Used in New London’s ‘Illicit Trade’ with Saint-Domingue, 1755-1763”
Jonathan Ault, Independent Historian, “Connecticut’s Maligned Naval Hero:The Revolutionary War Career of
Commodore Dudley Saltonstall”

17. REVOLUTIONARY WAR PERSPECTIVES - II

Chair: Robert L. Rafford, Northeast Professional Genealogy
Matthew Keagle, University of Delaware, “Connecticut and the Life and Death of the American Grenadier”
Peter J. Malia, Independent Historian, “Adjutant William Campbell:Unlikely Hero of the British Invasion of
New Haven, July 5, 1779”

18. CIVIL WAR HOME FRONT - II

Chair: Guocun Yang, Manchester Community College
Deborah G. Rossi, Curatorial Consultant, “Hard and Stirring Times: Middletown and the Civil War”
Catherine Deichmann, Mystic Seaport Museum, “For Neighbor or for Nation? Mystic, Connecticut
and the Civil War Draft”

19. CIVIL WAR STORIES

Chair: Harold L. Colvocoresses, Independent Historian
Lesley J. Gordon, University of Akron, “The ‘Rebs took us all’: The 16^th Connecticut in War and Captivity”
Jon E. Purmont, Southern Connecticut State University, “‘We Must Do Our Duty as Soldiers Should’:
Four New Haven Area Soldiers Views of the Civil War”

20. POST-WAR REFLECTIONS OF CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS

Chair: Briann Greenfield, Central Connecticut State University

Edward Gutierrez, University of Hartford, “Sherman Was Right – The Experience of Connecticut Doughboys
during the Great War”
David O. White, Independent Historian, “Immediate Recall: 1945 Recollections of Connecticut’s World War II
Servicemen”

21. FIGHTING THE COLD WAR

Chair: Nancy M. Shader, National Archives at New York
Walter Magnavice, Jr., Connecticut State Library, “Crazy Ivan and Other Undersea Cold War Tales”
Robert Kramer, Independent Historian, “The Inner Ring: Connecticut Air Defense Artillery in the Cold War Era”

Closing Reception 4:30 – 5:00

Refreshments and lunch provided by MCC Hospitality Industry Association students.

Registration Procedures

Individuals planning to attend the conference should complete the registration form and return it to the registrar, Prof. Guocun Yang, by Friday, November 7 to ensure admission to the reception on Friday, November 13 and the luncheon on Saturday, November 14. Registrations will be
accepted at the door both in Hartford, on Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14, but we cannot guarantee space for the reception
or lunch.

Please let us know which tour you to go on at the Friday portion of the program and the sessions you wish to attend on November 14 for space planning purposes.

Make your check payable to ASCH and send it with the registration form to:

                                    Prof. Guocun Yang
                                    Social Sciences Department
                                    Manchester Community College
                                    Great Path, M.S. #4, P.O. Box 1046
                                    Manchester, CT 06045-1046
                                    GYang@mcc.commnet.edu

Use Pay Pal and email your registration form to Professor Yang.

Friday registration only: $15.00

Saturday registration only:

ASCH, CMHC, CSL, and MCC members: $40.00

Non-member registration: $45.00

Student registration $30.00

Friday and Saturday registration:

ASCH, CMHC, CSL, and MCC members: $55.00

Non-member registration: $60.00

Student registration $45.00

No refunds after November 7.

Directions

To Connecticut State Library (231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford) and Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory (360 Broad Street, Hartford). Please note that the two facilities are within a five minute walk of each other and plentiful parking should be available in the garage of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) located in back of LOB and adjacent to the State Armory.

From west via I-84. Take Capitol Avenue exit, Exit 48B. Turn right onto Capitol Ave. and right at first light to Legislative Office Building garage.

From east via I-84. Take Exit 48 toward Asylum Street. Turn right onto Asylum, take left fork onto Farmington Ave., and immediate left at light onto Broad Street. Take left at second light onto Capitol Ave. Take left at first light to Legislative Office Building garage.

From south via I-91. When you get to Hartford, take Exit 32A onto I-84 west and then take Exit 48 toward Asylum Street. Turn right onto
Asylum, take left fork onto Farmington Ave., and immediate left at light onto Broad Street. Take left at second light onto Capitol Ave. Take Left
at first light to Legislative Office Building garage.

To Manchester Community College

From Boston and points East: Take I-84 West. Take Exit 59 to I-384 East. Immediately take Exit 1. Turn left onto Spencer Street (east bound). Turn right onto Hillstown Road. Take first left onto Great Path and proceed to stop sign. Take right onto Founders Drive South. Park in Lot C. Conference will be held in the Arts, Sciences, and Technology Center (white tower building).

From Hartford and points West: From I-84 East take Exit 59 to I-384. Immediately take Exit 1. Turn left onto Spencer Street (east bound).
Turn right onto Hillstown Road. Take first left onto Great Path and proceed to stop sign. Take right onto Founders Drive South. Park in Lot C. Conference will be held in the Arts Sciences, and Technology Center (white tower building).

For additional directions, see:

http://www.mcc.commnet.edu Maps and Directions.

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