"A Ninth Connecticut Vicksburg Committee has been formed to place a State of Connecticut Monument at the Vicksburg National Military Park to honor the “gallant soldiers of the 9th Connecticut Infantry who participated in the Vicksburg campaign of 1862”. Long denied any memorial at the Park, legislation was amended in 1990 to broaden the park’s interpretive mandate to cover the period April, 1862 to July 4, 1863, and to provide for the acquisition of the remaining vestige of the canal area. Thus Connecticut is now allowed to place a monument honoring their soldiers who participated in the Vicksburg campaign of 1862."
I am very proud to be affiliated with this project as the Composite Design Artist. My role was to design and create the artwork that is being etched onto the front and back of the monument. This was done by manipulating and merging details from a wide assortment of images, ultimately creating five of the six composite panels of artwork which reflect the intent of the monument--to honor the brave soldiers of the Connecticut 9th Regiment in the Vicksburg National Military Park.
After over two years of image development, the monument has finally reached the etching stage... (etching began in February.) Be sure to scroll lower in the page to see weekly updates of the etching as it progresses! It's wonderful to see these images, that have been so carefully researched, restored, combined and polished over these years, finally translated onto this massive, 5,000 pound chunk of polished black granite!
Many years of planning and organization, headed by Robert Larkin of Cheshire, CT, had been done prior to my involvement... please check out the link above for the web site dedicated to this incredible monument, as this page is limited to my role and the development of the images to be etched...
The etched portion of the monument is roughly 10' tall and 3' wide at the base. There are six "panels," three on the front and three on the back, each panel being about 3' by 3'.
The front & back top panels are of the Connecticut 9th Regiment Seal and the official State Seal of Connecticut, respectively. The only panel that I have not been directly involved with is the Connecticut State Seal panel as this image was provided by the State of Connecticut.
The front & back middle panels are portraits of some of the men in the 9th Regiment, arranged so that the viewer will see his or her face reflected in the mirror-like polished granite, in the midst of the soldiers' images. Care was taken to have portraits to represent a variety of ranks, as the monument is dedicated to all of the men serving in the 9th Regiment, regardless of their rank. It was also decided not to engrave the portrait names on the monument, (though they will be named in the dedication booklet), to further emphasize that these men are representing the entire regiment (as opposed to being individually honored).
The front & back bottom panels are of montage scenes depicting work on the canal, the labor and hardships these men faced during their time at Vicksburg.
Below are some of the images used in the panels. You may click on the image to advance to the next or choose a specific thumbnail image:
Though etching has started, many of the images are still in the final tweaking process. I will update these image feeds as time permits...
The reference images...
The up-to-date etchings...
I'm limiting this spot to completed panels and/or the most current pictures...) Jump to another page to see the weekly images that Stacy has sent throughout the etching process...
We had a broad range of size, clarity, resolution and quality in our original image collection. Finding ways to illustrate the men as they might have appeared during their tours of duty, to blend all of these images into well-defined panels (that work in harmony with each other) and still convey the purpose of the memorial, has been a fun and creative challenge.
Manipulation of these images to ready them for etching has been multifaceted. The final goal was to create cohesive illustrative images suitable for etching onto the massive polished black granite monument that will be erected in the Vicksburg National Military Park. The monument itself will be located in Louisiana at the canal site, where the soldiers toiled... (Geographically, the Vicksburg National Park crosses the state line and includes land in both Louisiana and Mississippi. The park is typically identified as being located in Mississippi.)
Keeping in mind that the goal was to create illustrative images with sufficient detail for etching, (not for portraiture or finished montage work), the final images are not as polished as they would be if the goal had been for print quality artwork. Hundreds of hours have been invested in the development of these images. To raise each image to finished print-quality would require many many more hours...
Where did we get our images...?
**Donated family portraits
**Thumbnail images from old books
**Scanned images of Civil War era illustrations
**Photographs taken at civil war re-enactments in Goshen, CT
**Photographs taken of specific clothing items, landscape elements and military insignias
**Photographs taken at the Grants Canal site in Louisiana
Most of our original images were deteriorated and needed some restoration work to bring back enough detail for Stacy Mathieu, the etching artist, to work onto the granite. This was the first step for most of the portrait images.
Some portraits were from old publications and detail had been lost due to photo-copying, enlargement and half-toning; (some began as mere thumbnail-sized images). Some were photographs or illustrations taken after the men had aged or had changed military rank.
For images with very little detail, we overlaid photos of men with similar facial features to provide much needed depth and expression to some of our soldier's faces.
Details extracted from photographs taken at modern Civil War re-enactments, along with other images, were merged with the original images to apply historically accurate badges on sleeves, shoulder boards, buttons and kepis (hats). With some images, military uniforms had to be substituted for civilian clothing before the appropriate military insignias could be added.
Sample before & after images... Click on the image to advance to the next image (or hover your mouse over the bottom of the image to choose a specific thumbnail.)
For the bottom montage panels, numerous images were combined to create scenes to reflect the various duties and hardships of the men as they served. Most of these images were taken at local Civil War re-enactments but some were taken at the actual Vicksburg site. Other images were posed and photographed to supply a necessary detail or scene.
In addition to typical issues related to merging multiple images taken in dramatically different locations, (different perspectives, resolutions, lighting & shadows, etc...), care was taken to create historically accurate images. As with the soldier's portraits, many uniforms were adjusted in the group images to reflect ranks as they would have been assigned in their labors.
Tom Callinan worked diligently to research, verify and double-check the historical accuracy of the images. More on Tom, his recordings and the history of the 9th can be found here...
Challenges to overcome...
**Some photographs were taken after the men had changed military ranks and had grown older
**Many of the civil war vestements that we did have images of did not have the appropriate rank markings (badges, insignias, shoulder boards, buttons, etc...)
**Portraits of some of the men were taken when they were wearing civilian clothing... we wanted them to be in uniform...
**Differences in light, shadows, resolutions and size when merging photographs
**Half-tones (think of the dots you see when you look closely at comic book or newspaper illustrations) and posterization (think of flattened poster-like illustrations)... enlarging images to monument-size greatly exaggerates these issues... Lots of detail is lost...
The regimental seal posed its own set of challenges. Plans were made to have the actual flag bearing the regimental seal taken out of the display cabinet in the Hall of Flags at the State Capital in Hartford, CT for the specific purpose of creating accurate reference images. When the date arrived for the photo session, the flag was found to be too fragile to handle and the session was cancelled.
Our primary reference photo was taken after the flag had already suffered some of the ravages of time. Some of the lettering, shamrocks weaving through and over the harp, the number of harp strings, along with other details, were also either missing or barely visible on the original reference photos. Though we tried to stay true to the original, several details of the emblem were re-created by digitally painting on our reference image, after the typical image restoration adjustments.
Jim Sheehan - Claddah Carver - created a wonderful scaled down version of the monument which has been shown throughout Connecticut. An image of this model is in the first slide set above.
The Irish American Historical Society's copy of the 1903 book, The History of the Ninth Regiment C. V. by Thomas Hamilton Murray, was scanned and digitized on a Quinnipiac University website. The Ninth's involvement in the vicinity of Vicksburg is covered in Chapter 8. The following excerpt is directly quoted from Chapter 8, pages 108-109 of this book and vividly illustrates the plight and involvement of the 9th Regiment at Vicksburg, Mississippi:
"... THE city of Vicksburg, Miss., located at a bend on the east side of the Mississippi, above Baton Rogue, La., had been strongly fortified by the rebels. It commanded the river at that point and blockaded navigation up and down. Heavy batteries had been erected on the bluffs overlooking the river.
"The Union commanders decided to reopen navigation by cutting a canal across the peninsular at Vicksburg, thus changing the course of the river, isolating the city and enabling the Union forces to avoid the batteries of the enemy. The Ninth Connecticut was a part of the expeditionary force, under Gen. Wiliams, for this purpose. Under date of Baton Rouge, June 17, 1862, Col. Cahill issued a regimental order to the Ninth, covering the embarkation of the command...
"...Says the Croffut-Morris work: "Coming in sight of batteries which the rebels had posted here and there to command the river, the infantry would go ashore and attack by land on the flank, driving the enemy from the position, and enabling the fleet to pass up. The Ninth was several times engaged in these operations, and rendered much service. The vessels went to the very guns of Vicksburg, when the brigade was landed on the west side of the river, and advanced to Young's Station, opposite the city.
"Here Commodore Farragut had already arrived, and had set large numbers of soldiers and negroes at work digging the famous canal for a new channel of the river; and the regiment of Williams' brigade at once joined enthusiastically in the excavation for the cut-off. Col. Cahill of the Ninth was the ranking colonel, and commanded in the absence of Gen. Williams.
"Here the Ninth again suffered greatly. There was nothing to eat for weeks but pork and hard-tack; no water to drink but the muddy water of the Mississippi. The swamp reeked with malaria, and the men slept upon the mud. The supply of quinine, that panacea for all the soldier's aches and ills, was exausted; there was little medicine of any sort. Requisitions were sent as far as New Orleans; but the medical Dogberry declined to honor them on the ground of 'irregularity.' Almost the whole of the Ninth regiment was at one time on the sick-list with fever caused by exposure and privation. The poor fellows died sometimes at the fearful rate of a score a week; and out of the * * * Connecticut members present, the state catalogue of troops shows that one hundred and fifty-three died during this season, —a mortality not equalled by any other of our regiments within a similar period.
"After a month of this deadly service, the engineers discovered that the water was falling and would not flow through their canal; and the work was abandoned..."
In July of 2008, Dennis McCarthy, an architect from the National Park Service, was able to see the in-process memorial while vacationing here in our lovely Connecticut. Upon his return, he posted the above link as a record of the techniques used in the fabrication of our monument.
In the search box, you must type "Connecticut Memorial" and then follow the link to view the archives.
Having over 300 members, The Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society (CTIAHS) is a non-profit organization to research, preserve and publicize the history of Connecticut's Irish people and is dedicated to keeping alive the Irish history and traditions.
"Fort Nathan Hale and Black Rock Fort are located in New Haven, CT. These facilities played roles in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. This web site is dedicated to those heroes that served during those and subsequent conflicts, the many volunteers who have worked diligently to restore, maintain and manage the site and its activities, reenactors who bring history to life and the many visitors and supporters of this historic landmark."
They dedicated a page to the Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers.
