Bellefonte Area High School

            Throughout this project, I learned a great deal more about my unit and the Civil War as well as how to build an eye-catching and interesting website to help others learn about what I researched. I gained a greater knowledge of the 7^th Connecticut and the battles they fought in by explaining it through this webpage. By following this unit’s progress throughout the war, I learned more about many different campaigns instead of just one.

            The7^th Connecticut fought bravely in many battles. However, apart from the Siege of Fort Pulaski, the early war did not go well for them. They were often involved in attacking fortified positions and Confederate strongholds. This is because the 7^th Connecticut frequently attacked high value targets including capitals of Confederate states and strongholds overlooking ports. Despite having greater numbers in many of these battles, they were often pushed back with heavy casualties. Later in the war, they were involved in several key Union victories that ultimately won the war.

            Interestingly, nearly all of the 7^th Connecticut’s battles were in combination with some kind of naval operation. For instance, they were involved in the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff. This battle was part of the Peninsula campaign of the spring of 1862, in which McClellan and the rest of the Union forces tried to make a push to take Richmond and end the war quickly. As Union ships steamed up the James River towards Richmond, they were bombarded by Fort Darling on the cliffs above them. Since many of the ships, including the Monitor, could not angle their guns to hit the fort, they were forced to retreat. This essentially stopped the campaign in combination with Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley campaign. The 7^th Connecticut also fought with naval support in the Siege of Fort Pulaski, the Battle of James Island, Battery Wagner, and the Second Battle of Fort Fisher.

The 7^th Connecticut Volunteers traveled a great deal during the war. From their homes in Connecticut, their first battle took place in Savannah, Georgia, about 900 miles away.  They traveled up and down the coastline fighting in places ranging from Virginia to Florida. Ultimately, the 7^th Connecticut traveled about 3,000 miles throughout the course of the war. They moved up to Virginia and took part in two of the Union’s biggest offensives in the area. This included the Peninsula Campaign and the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, in which the Union eventually won the war. For their last battle, the 7^th Connecticut moved once again to fight in North Carolina in a battle that essentially brought the last Confederate porti nto Union hands.

Aside from thepurely Civil War aspects of this project, I learned a great deal through the use of the website.  I learned how tomake the information I collected appealing to others while still making it informative. By adding in the map of the 7^th Connecticut’s travels, I learned some basic programming in HTML in changing names of battle sites and adjusting the size of the picture.

Overall, this project helped me learn a great deal more about an individual unit rather than the army as a whole. The project was not about summarizing campaigns or generals, but instead was to follow one group of men over the course of the Civil War. Through this, I saw how one unit moved and fought separate from any individual group or in any particular location. The format of the webpage helped to bring this idea to life as well.