On April 3, 1863—just weeks after the Battle of Fort Sumter ignited the Civil War two years earlier—the Willimantic Journal publishes urgent dispatches from Union soldiers in the field. The lead story is a letter from a correspondent at New Bern, North Carolina, describing a Confederate attack on March 14th. The rebels opened fire from across the Neuse River with an estimated 25,000 troops and 30-60 pieces of artillery, but Union gunboats and artillery repelled them "every shot telling plainly that we were able and intending to hold the place." What's remarkable: the letter writer praises the courage of Black soldiers manning the USS Acken, a gunboat with two 32-pounder cannons crewed by ten enslaved or freed men per gun. "Every man stood his post and everyone who witnessed it acknowledge they never saw better fighting," he writes. He calls for arming Black soldiers and notes a colored regiment of 1,000-1,200 men now stationed there, "far more sensible and intelligent than the poor whites South." A second soldier's letter from the 22nd Connecticut Regiment describes Colonel Burnham rallying troops at dress parade, cursing "every man that cursed him" for enlisting, and leading the regiment to unanimously reject Democratic nominee Tom Seymour in favor of Republican William Buckingham for Connecticut governor. The page also features genealogical records of the Bassett family—early Windham settlers—and patriotic poetry memorializing Casey's Division at Seven Pines.

April 1863 was a pivotal moment in the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in January, had just gone into effect, freeing enslaved people in rebel states—yet Northern opinion remained deeply divided. "Copperheads" (Peace Democrats) opposed continuing the war and advocated compromise with the Confederacy. These letters reveal the intense political struggle happening simultaneously on two fronts: soldiers at the front demanding vigorous prosecution of the war and the arming of Black soldiers, while Northern civilians debated war policy. Connecticut was a key swing state in the 1863 elections. The soldiers' passionate endorsement of Buckingham and denunciation of Seymour shows how the war itself had become inseparable from domestic politics. The eyewitness account of Black soldiers' combat effectiveness was politically explosive—it directly challenged racist arguments that Black men wouldn't fight, undermining one of the Copperheads' main objections to emancipation.

• The USS Acken, manned by Black gunners, took a direct hit 'below the water mark' during the engagement at New Bern but suffered only 'inconsiderable damage'—yet the letter writer emphasizes the rebels 'disliked the idea of having shot at' Black soldiers, revealing how threatening integrated combat units were to the Confederate forces.
• A soldier from the 22nd Connecticut reports that the regiment voted unanimously against Tom Seymour for governor, with the letter writer noting 'there was not a man who lifted his voice for Tom, whatever his sentiments may have been'—a veiled admission that some soldiers may have privately disagreed but dared not dissent publicly.
• The New Bern correspondent writes that 'a day-school has just been established and is largely attended by old and young' for freed people, with 'a Sabbath school for their benefit' drawing 'hundreds' in attendance—documenting the immediate establishment of education infrastructure in Union-occupied territory.
• The genealogy section traces Horace Bassett, a Windham native, who 'was for forty years a prominent lawyer and citizen of Indiana, and d. at Indianapolis, in January, 1801'—showing westward migration of Connecticut families and their influence in frontier states.
• A poem titled 'Lines Written in Memory of Casey's Division' memorializes soldiers who 'fought the foe for full four hours till half of them were slain' at Seven Pines (May 31, 1862), yet the letter writer notes this brutal battle 'was reported that they so badly fled'—capturing how Union defeats were spun as routs in some accounts.

• The letter from New Bern praises the 'bully 10th' Massachusetts Regiment and mentions that 'peaches and plum trees have been in bloom two weeks or more'—casual details that reveal Union soldiers were not just fighting but observing and living in the occupied South, adapting to unfamiliar climates.
• Colonel Burnham of the 22nd Connecticut identifies himself as 'a Democrat—every inch a Democrat' who enlisted for the Union, reflecting the genuine political complexity of 1863 when many War Democrats supported the conflict while Peace Democrats opposed it. This nuance was erased from post-war memory.
• The correspondent at New Bern mentions capturing a Confederate guerrilla 'dressed in female attire' and parading him through streets with a placard—a shocking detail that hints at the moral chaos and humiliation tactics of occupation warfare that rarely appear in sanitized histories.
• The genealogy of the Bassett family notes that 'the name has entirely disappeared from Mansfield,' suggesting families either died out or migrated westward so completely that genealogists could find no local descendants—a poignant reminder of how fluid 19th-century American settlement was.
• A reprint of 'A Boy's Letter' describing farm life mentions 'we're going a fishing as soon as we have mended our top joint' and owning 'a famous good' gun 'sure to go off if you don't full cock it'—charming rural childhood details that suggest even in wartime, civilian life carried on with hunters, fishing, and country pastimes.