06/14/2026
On Friday, June 19, at 2:00 p.m., the Mill Museum and Windham Town Historian Jamie Eves will be observing the Juneteenth holiday with a short ceremony at the Old Willimantic Cemetery in Willimantic, CT, across main Street from the Stop and Shop supermarket. Jamie will be placing flag markers on the graves of three Civil War soldiers who fought as members of so-called "colored" regiments. Cpl. Caesar Hall was an African American farmer, husband, and father from Hampton, CT, who joined the 29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. Pvt. Lianzo Sekater was a Narragansett from Willington, CT, who also joined the 29th CVI. Pvt. John Harris was an African American farm laborer from western Massachusetts who joined the famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Colored) -- the subject of the movie "Glory" -- who later moved to Willimantic with his family. We will mark the graves with American flags, signifying the Union for which the men fought. Jamie will present a brief history of the 29th and 30th CVI (Colored) regiments, and of the 54th MVI. Following the ceremony, Jamie will visit the Windham Center cemetery, where two more veterans of the 29th CVI -- Joseph Davis and Marvin Smith -- are buried, to decorate their graves, as well. To learn more, you can visit https://millmuseum.org/caesar-hall-2/ , which tells the story of Cpl. Caesar Hall and the 29th CVI.
Here is the short version of the story of the 29th and 30th CVI (Colored) and 54th MVI (Colored) regiments and why it is appropriate to remember them on Juneteenth: Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, specifically the announcement in Texas by the Union Army at the end of the Civil War that all enslaved people in the United States had been emancipated.
President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January, 1863, in the middle of the Civil War. (A preliminary draft had been announced in September, 1862, following the Union victory at Antietam.) The Proclamation declared forever free all enslaved people residing in lands controlled by the Confederacy, and did not apply to the loyal slave states Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Nor did it apply to swatches of other Southern states already captured and held by the Union Army, such as New Orleans. (In these areas, enslaved people who made it to the Union lines were declared "contraband of war," which would effectively make them free.) In fact the Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free anyone on the day it was issued. Rather, it set a goal: as the Union Army advanced, more and more enslaved people would become free. The Union Army -- thousands of ordinary men (and some women, it turned out), most of them volunteers, thus became the instrument of freedom, and ending slavery became a central goal of the War.
To improve the odds of victory, Lincoln also opened the Union Army and navy to "colored" soldiers: African Americans, Native Americans, and others defined as nonwhite, who had been forbidden from joining the military by an Act of Congress passed not long after the Revolution. These soldiers were required to serve in segregated "colored" regiments with white officers. Nevertheless, thousands volunteered. Proportionate to their population, African American men were twice as likely as white men to volunteer to join the Union Army. Death rates for Black soldiers were higher than for white soldiers, mostly because they received poorer medical care. Although some generals were reluctant to place the new "colored" regiments in the front lines, both the 29th CVI and 54th MVI saw combat. When Richmond fell, General U. S. Grant ordered the 29th into the city first.
The action of the "colored" regiments, along with many acts of sabotage behind Confederate lines by enslaved Southerners, make it clear that freedom was not simply a gift given to enslaved people by Northern whites, but something that Black Americans also fought and died for. Following Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, the 29th was ordered first to Washington, DC, and then to Texas, arriving the day after the Juneteenth declaration. It is fitting, then, to remember our "colored" veterans on Juneteenth.
