Letters, tales bring the history of Civil War to life

SALISBURY, Conn. — The Salisbury Association Historical Society’s newest exhibit, Salisbury Soldiers in the Civil War, opened Friday, March 7, at the Academy Building on Main Street.Town Historian Katherine Chilcoat said the exhibit took the better part of two years to put together. She said it was complicated somewhat by the remodeling work in the Academy Building at the same time. “We weren’t sure what the exhibit space would look like.”The exhibit features letters to George B. Selleck, a Salisbury man who did not volunteer but was a faithful correspondent for his friends who did enlist. The exhibit’s notes state that it is believed that Selleck did not go because of ill health.The letters start with the salutation “Friend George,” and contain descriptions of battlefield conditions, news of other Salisbury men and other personal details — especially the desire to come home.Several have a heading: “Headquarters: Department of the South.”A soldier’s eye view of warThere are letters from Albert E. Barnes, who died in December 1863, and from Jeremiah Newton Dexter, who was mustered into the Union army on Sept. 7, 1861. Dexter was wounded on June 16, 1862, at the Battle of Secessionville, survived, and was discharged almost three years to the day of his enlistment, on Sept. 6, 1864. Dexter did not return to Salisbury, but settled in Barton, N.Y.Thomas Lot Norton’s account for the Congregational Church, “Our Church in War Time,” also figures prominently in the exhibit. George Lee Wells, who lived on Old Asylum Road, was mustered into the army Sept. 7, 1861, at the age of 23.Wells fought in the Bermuda Hundred campaign in May and June 1864, was captured June 2 and spent time at the infamous Andersonville prison in Georgia.He escaped, according to Norton, when the Confederate authorities moved the Union prisoners as Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman got close.“On the way, he watched his chances, slipped out of the car (rail) and gained the swamps of South Georgia.“Night after night for two long weeks, piloted by faithful, black-skinned comrades, resting in tangled everglades by day, he reached at last a river running to the sea, down which he glided, until the old flag of Uncle Sam’s gunboats assured him of life and freedom.”Wells was discharged on Sept. 12, 1864.The Ball family had three generations in the war: Charles (who signed up at age 15); his father, Harvey; and Charles’ grandfather, Whitney Ayers.Charles Bell, it is noted, had “close personal encounters with both Abraham Lincoln and General Grant.”The longest surviving Salisbury Civil War veteran was Horace Ball, who died in 1938 at the age of 91. In 1863, Ball enlisted at the age of 16 and served in Company B of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.Overall some 353 Salisbury men are listed as serving.The invention of granolaThe exhibit gives details of army life. “Marching rations” consisted of 16 ounces of hard bread (called “hardtack”); 12 ounces of salt pork or 20 ounces of fresh meat; sugar; coffee; and salt.In camp the rations were: soft bread, flour or cornmeal; dried beans or peas; “dessicated” or dried vegetables; rice; vinegar; molasses; and a supply of soap and candles.The dessicated vegetables were similar to the freeze-dried meals modern backpackers use. “These ‘desecrated’ vegetables, as the soldiers called them, were universally disliked and were prepared by dropping the dried block into boiling water to yield a thin vegetable soup.”And, in another food-related item, granola was invented during the Civil War by one James Caleb Jackson, “who baked sheets of moistened whole wheat flour, crumbled them into bits, then baked them again, creating hard little nuggets he called ‘granola.’”The exhibit has a well-preserved poster commemorating the formation of Company B, 19th Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, which lists the officers and men.The unit was organized in July 1982 in Salisbury, and mustered on Sept. 11 in Litchfield.Around the eagle at the top of the poster, a banner reads, “No rebel force can rend our power. The whole United States is ours.”The exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, during the next few months.