Camp-Field Monument; or, Griffin A. Stedman Monument (Hartford, Connecticut)
Union
Veterans of several Connecticut regiments erected this monument in 1900 on the site in Hartford, the state capital, where they had been mustered into service and encamped prior to their departure for the theater of war. Unlike many northern monuments that depict a generic Union soldier, this one features a statue of a specific individual: General Griffin A. Stedman, whom the monument inscription calls a “typical volunteer soldier of the Civil War.” Born in Hartford and educated at Trinity College, less than a kilometer from the site, Stedman had been widely mourned in the city when he was killed in 1864 during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, where a federal fortification was christened Fort Stedman the same year.
Monument type:
Statue - high ranking official
Artist:
Frederick Moynihan
Dedication Date:
1900-10-04
Address:
Hartford
Hartford
Connecticut
United States of America
Inscription:
(1) Front (west) face of lower stage of dado, bronze plaque 33 1/2" x 27 1/2", raised caps:
GRIFFIN A. STEDMAN.
TYPICAL VOLUNTEER SOLDIER
OF THE CIVIL WAR,
CAPTAIN
MAJOR
LIEUTENANT COLONEL
COLONEL
BRIGADIER GENERAL
BORN AT HARTFORD, CONN., JANUARY 6, 1838.
KILLED AT PETERSBURG, VA., AUGUST 5, 1864
(2) North:
REGIMENTS ENCAMPED ON THIS FIELD
5TH CONN. VOLS, ORRIS S. BERRY, COLONEL
8TH " " EDWARD HARLAND, "
10TH " " CHARLES L. RUSSELL, "
14TH " " DWIGHT MORRIS, "
16TH " " FRANK BEACH, "
22ND " " GEORGE S. BURNHAM, "
25TH " " GEORGE E. BISSELL, "
(3) East: [Seal of Connecticut]
(4) South:
THIS MONUMENT
MARKS THE FIELD EXTENDING
FROM THIS POINT SIXTY RODS EAST
AND ONE-HUNDRED RODS SOUTH
ON WHICH SEVEN REGIMENTS
OF CONNECTICUT VOLUNTEERS
ENCAMPED AND WERE MUSTERED
INTO THE SERVICE OF THE UNITED
STATES DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
1861 - 1865
ERECTED BY THE VETERAN
SURVIVORS OF THE WAR.
[Left side of statue base, incised caps: FRED. MOYNIHAN. SC / NY 1900]
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Conception Date:
1898-01-01
Opening Date:
1900-10-04
Material:
Bronze,Granite
Size:
0m x 0m x 6.4008m
Creator:
Gorham Company (foundry) and Stephen Maslen Corporation (stone pedestal)
Cost / Value:
$6000
Erected by:
The Camp-Field Monument Association
Funded by:
Private donations (principally veterans of the 5th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th Connecticut regiments) and state funds.
Run by:
Indigenous Land
Pequonock, Wangunk, Podunk, Tunxis, Wappinger, Nehantic, Nipmuck, and Mahican peoples
Organization/Curator:
Data Sources:
Trinity College Bulletin, December 1900, pp 5-21 (available at https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/bulletin/4)
“Veterans at Campfield Dedicate Monument Statue of General Stedman,” Hartford Courant 5 October 1900, pp 1, 8.
Suzanne Mittica, “Griffin A. Stedman, Jr.: Student, Soldier, Legend” (2003), Hartford Studies Collection: Papers by Students and Faculty, Trinity College Library (available at https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/hartford_papers/5)
David Ransom and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, “Griffin A. Stedman Monument,” Connecticut Civil War Monuments Survey, 1997; https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/finding_aides/ransom/045.htm (accessed 21 August 2024).
Douglas Eliason, “Griffin A. Stedman: The Man and the Symbol (1996); Trinitiana Collection, Trinity College Library
Read below for one of our contributor’s reflections on this monument