Unearthing Community: Archaeology of the Beman Triangle

Unearthed in the dig, photo by Bill Burkhart

The Middlesex County Historical Society, located in the General Mansfield House, 151 Main Street, will be the first stop for the exhibit, “Unearthing Community: Archaeology of the Beman Triangle.” The public may view the exhibit beginning Saturday, April 6 through the end of May. Museum hours are Monday – Thursday, 10 am to 3 pm and the first Saturday of the month, 12 pm to 3 pm.

Middlesex Historic Society Mansfield House Spring Clean up

  A message from the Middlesex Historic Society- & invitation extended to the public:

 

Dear Members,

 

Chairman of Buildings and Grounds, Joe Samolis, is issuing a call for volunteers to help clean up the Mansfield House yard and gardens on Saturday, May 5 at 9 am.  Members Bonnie Penders and Lois Bukowiec have already tended to the herb garden, and member Sally D'Aquila has taken care of the boxwoods, but the rest of the yard needs raking and clipping and weeding.  As it is said, many hands make light work, so the more who help out, the quicker the task will be completed.  I have several rakes here, but if you could bring your own and a pair of clippers, that would be helpful.  We'll have coffee brewing for those who need a boost!

Our yard is an oasis in the downtown area and we are justly proud of it.  The more beautiful it is, the more likely we will be able to rent it for parties and events, a goal under our new budget adopted last evening at the annual meeting.

 

If it is pouring rain, we will postpone to Saturday, May 12, but hopefully we will have sunny weather.

 

Best,

Debby

 

Deborah Shapiro
Director
Middlesex County Historical Society
151 Main Street
Middletown, CT 06457
(860) 346-0746

Middlesex County Historical Society Honored by State and National History Organizations

The Middlesex County Historical Society was honored to receive an Award of Merit at the annual state meeting of the Connecticut League of History Organizations at the Old State House in Hartford in June. The Society’s Civil War initiative, which includes the current exhibit “Hard & Stirring Times: Middletown and the Civil War,” the placement of the exhibit on its website, www.middlesexhistory.org, and the development of curriculum using the Society’s Civil War archives for the local middle and high schools, was cited for recognition.

The American Association for State and Local History presented the Society an Award of Merit at that group’s annual meeting in Oklahoma City on September 24. Terry L. Davis, President and CEO, wrote, “The AASLH Leadership in History Awards is the nation’s most prestigious competition for recognition of achievement in state and local history. We congratulate you for the work that has brought this honor.” The full list of Connecticut honorees can be found at http://www.clho.org/award.htm.

The initiative was funded by a grant from the Connecticut Humanities Council with matching support provided by the Middlesex County Historical Society’s Antique and Classic Car Show Committee and many private donations.

The exhibit can be viewed at the Society’s headquarters, The General Joseph Mansfield House, 151 Main Street, Middletown. Museum hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 10 to 3, and Friday, 10 to 12. Genealogical and archival research is available by appointment.

A celebration of children and history

The Middlesex County Historical Society held a reception to honor the participants and winners of the 2009 William E. Sheedy Memorial History Contest. The event brought about 100 people to the galleries and gardens of the General Mansfield House on Main Street, on a lovely late spring Thursday evening.

The contest challenged third graders in Middletown to prepare a report about one of their ancestors. This year there were 196 entries, from which 16 were selected as winners, each of whom received $25 from the Historical Society. The winners were, from Wesley School, Richard Nakaksuka, from Snow School, Avivah Malin, from St. Mary's School, Spencer Appell, from Lawrence School, Taylor Conner, Danny Flynn, Katelyn Cartwright, DylanJoel Lineberger, and Aparajita Kashyap, from Moody School, Alina Williamson, Mason Moua, and Dylan Drescher, and from Farm Hill School, Victoria Brenchak, Allison Molski, Andrew Palozie, Matthew Bjorlund, and Vincent Gritzuk.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools, John Hennelly celebrated the writing of Middletown school children, and pointed with pride to the ability of these young people to "tell other people's stories." Each child had put together a binder with extensive writing, along with copies of photographs, letters, official documents and other historical artifacts documenting the life of their ancestor. And what wonderful stories these children had told, ranging from Aparajita's tale of Grandfather Dadu who received a commendation from Indira Gandhi, to Mason's tale of his father's education in Laos, to DylanJoel's stories about his grandfather Papa Tony.

In presenting the awards, Nancy Bauer, Secretary of the Historical Society, quoted excerpts from each of the winner's reports. Many of the children wrote movingly about the meaning that their ancestor had for them, and how much they had learned about their family from doing the research.

Civil War in Middletown

Civil War reenactors from Company G of the 14th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry were in town today, behind the General Mansfield House of the Middlesex County Historical Society. We had an interesting chat with Sergeant Paul Martinello (left), who answered questions about the life of the ordinary Connecticut volunteer in the mid nineteenth century. Especially interesting were the details he provided about the standard issue Springfield rifle-musket that his unit was equipped with, as well as other firearms from the period. The Springfield rifle-musket was, as the latter part of its name implies, a muzzle loading weapon. Sergeant Martinello added that it was not dissimilar to the Enfield rifle-musket which began to see use in the 1850s in the British Empire. This struck a chord with me, as the Enfield is famous in Indian history for being a major cause of the Indian 'Mutiny' of 1857 (Hindu and Muslim soldiers strenuously objected to having to bite the greased cartridge that was larded with cow and pig fat).

Many North American soldiers used the Enfield as well as the Springfield: since the calibers of the weapons were almost identical (.58 for the Springfield versus .577 for the Enfield), the ammunition was practically interchangeable. The term 'rifle' or 'rifled' refers to the patterned grooving cut into the interior of the barrel wall, which caused the projectile, an early version of the conventional missile shaped bullet called the 'Minié ball' (after the French inventor of the same name), to spin rapidly as it exited the barrel. Note that even though it was called a 'ball', the projectile was really bullet shaped. Prior to the Minié ball, ammunition was spherical and the tolerances were fairly low (i.e., the diameter of the ball was significantly smaller than that of the barrel); as a result the ball would ricochet up the barrel and veer off in whatever direction was dictated by the last contact with the barrel wall. The spinning motion of the Minié projectile and the precision sizing of the bullet and barrel dramatically enhanced accuracy and range, so much so that proper gun sights were being introduced at this time for sharpshooters. The range was about 300 to 500 yards, with up to 1000 yards for sharpshooters with sights. The Minié ball was made of lead and was heavy, and on impact it spread out. This did extraordinary damage to the body, and was responsible for the large number of amputations during the Civil War, since a bone could not be easily repaired after being shattered by the expanding bullet. The increased range and effect naturally changed the nature of battle.

The Springfield and Enfield might be thought of as a transition from the old muzzle-loading muskets like the Brown Bess (range about 100 yards) to the breech-loading rifles that we are familiar with from Hollywood Westerns like 'The Rifleman'.













Company G demonstrated how the weapons were loaded and fired. It's a complicated process, involving nine discrete steps. According to the National Park Service website for Vicksburg, 'a soldier on the drill field would be expected to load and fire a musket 3-4 times a minute,' but 'in combat it was much different.'

A particularly nice feature of Company G is that it has a mess cook who prepares Civil War dishes for the soldiers. Sergeant Martinello told of having eaten rabbit at one reenactment. We were starting to get pretty hungry just standing there listening to his war stories, so it was a good thing we left when we did. I don't imagine the unit would have taken too kindly to us raiding the pot.

Photo credits: Pearse and Vijay Pinch