Salisbury, Connecticut is a small town in the Litchfield Hills just an hour from New York City. It was first settled by Europeans in 1720. The original Europeans were of Dutch background coming from the Hudson Valley in New York. By 1731, a deposit of iron ore had been discovered and Anglo settlers came in to exploit the mineral. In 1744, the Established Church was founded, now called the Congregational Church, by the growing number of English settlers.
In 1762, Salisbury’s first blast furnace was built. It was used to smelt the ore so that the iron could be extracted. A decade later, the Salisbury Furnace was used to produce the iron for cannons during the Revolution. Estimates are that over 800 cannons were produced there. During the Civil War, Salisbury produced cannon and train car wheels for the war effort. In manufacturing artillery shells, local artisans developed explosive shells that were used by the Union Army.
The Salisbury Monument is at the intersection of Route 44 and Route 41 near the center of town. There is a flag pole in the small triangular park with the monument right behind it. Unfortunately, there are advertisements for the towns activities that are placed randomly around. The town has pretty the same population as it had during the Civil War. In 1860 there were 3,100 people there and in 2020 it was 4,200.
On June 17, 1891 the new monument was unveiled. The monument was designed by George Edwin Bissell, a Connecticut sculptor. He had served as a private in the 23rd Regiment Connecticut Infantry. When he received the commission for the monument, he was living in Salisbury. The Quincy Granite monument was placed in the Civil War Memorial Park.
The woman at the top is called Columbia in some accounts, and Freedom or Union in others. She has her foot on the bonds of slavery.
The statue is dedicated to all the men of Salisbury who fought for the Union in the Civil War, The bronze dedication says:
TO HER LOYAL SONS
WHO FOUGHT FOR THE UNION,
SALISBURY
ERECTS THIS MEMORIAL.
1891
At the base are two of the battles that her men fought in, Cold Harbor and Olustee in Florida. At the base is one of four cannon incorporated into the monument.
On the sides of the memorial are the names of the men of the town who enlisted. These include the men of the 2nd Conn. Heavy Artillery, which was converted to infantry during the Overland Campaign and suffered more than 200 dead. This unit seems to have the most men from Salisbury, perhaps because they were workers making cannons.
The 5th Conn. Infantry fought in many battles including Front, Royal, Winchester, 2nd Battel at Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign and the Carolina Campaign/
Sources:
A Landscape Transformed: The Ironmaking District of Salisbury Connecticut by Robert B. Gordon pub. Oxford University Press (2001)
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