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Private William Webb, a Civil War soldier, performed by Kevin Johnson
By Donna Dufresne
Tenth graders in Killingly High School and the Arts at the Capitol Theater Magnet School (ACT) in Willimantic are taking part in a year-long study of the soldiers from the CT 29th Colored Regiment in the Civil War through a grant funded by The Last Green Valley.
The program, Out of the Shadows: Shedding Light on the CT 29th Colored Regiment, was designed by education specialist and historian Donna Dufresne. During the year-long enrichment program, students will learn to read and interpret primary sources as they research the local 29th Regiment soldiers of Nipmuc and African descent. Students will try to locate the places where the veterans of the 29th Colored Regiment lived, worked, and prayed, and place memorial markers at their gravesites.
The program was kicked off with a retreat at the Windham-Tolland 4-H Camp in Pomfret where students from both schools met and participated in collaborative team-building activities. The intent was for the students, who come from different learning communities, to get to know each other. Heather Logee, director of the 4-H Center, led the outdoor challenge activities.
One highlight of the student retreat was the dramatic interpretation of Private William Webb, a Civil War soldier in the CT. 29th Colored Regiment, performed by Kevin Johnson from the CT. State Library. Appearing in his Civil War Uniform, “Private Webb” captured the attention of the audience of teens and faculty as he told stories of the battles and the daily life of a soldier of African descent. He emphasized that he was fighting for the ideal of freedom and the hope of gaining citizen rights. After the performance, Johnson explained that he had found William Webb in the archives of the State Library, and pieced his story together based on primary sources such as military records, birth and marriage records, and other documents.
Since the retreat and performance, students have been learning how to analyze and interpret primary documents, photographs, and pictures. Recently, they were given the transcript of a letter written by a soldier from the 29th regiment. Joseph O. Cross’s letter to his “dear wife” lacks punctuation but is full of descriptive detail, including the long marches, and Rebel attacks. He describes one gruesome battle where his company was ordered to crouch behind a bank. From there, he witnessed men who were shot in the face, eyes, and arms being carried off the field passing his station. He also sends his wife a cotton boll instructing her to plant it in the early spring in a box (hot house) to protect it from frost. He describes his first feed of black-eyed peas from a bean “7 inches long”. He is sending his wife the little money he has left from his last monthly pay and laments that they have not been paid for a while. From the letter, students were able to derive the character traits of Joseph Cross, and a snapshot of his familial networks and community in Connecticut.
While reading primary sources, students learned about text evidence and reading between the lines to make inferences about individual characters and historical events. After analyzing the letter of Joseph O Cross, students examined drawings and paintings of some of the battles and places mentioned in the letter to build context. They also examined photographs of the 29th Colored Regiment.
Students will begin to identify, and write about local 29th Colored Regiment soldiers with the help of their teachers, (Joe Lewerk and Dale Maxwell), Donna Dufresne, and local historians.
Eventually, they will share what they learned through multi-media presentations and help to shed some light on the CT. 29th Colored Regiment through a wider lens of the Civil War.
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