Catalog of Manuscript Collections

Creators: New Haven Grays; New Haven Blues; Connecticut Branch of the Society of the Cincinnati; Connecticut National Guard Extent: 15 ft. (6,300 items including 70 vols.) Description: Correspondence, rosters, orders, published histories, financial records, scrapbooks, diaries, reprints of newspaper accounts of US wars, minutes, many photos, and other materials, chiefly relating to the New Haven Grays, a local elite military company, affiliated at times with Connecticut Militia and National Guard, active from 1816 to 1945 (founded 1816 as New Haven Light Infantry Company; shortly thereafter renamed New Haven Grays in honor of its uniform; in 1861 served as Company C, US Army, 2nd Infantry Regiment; each summer after the Civil War, integrated with Connecticut National Guard as F Company, 2nd Regiment for training; played active role as unit in Mexican border incident in 1916; during World War I reorganized as Company F, US Army, 102nd Infantry Regiment, 26th (Yankee) Division, American Expeditionary Forces; and in World War II served as Company C (in Pacific theater), 1st Battalion and Company B, 1st and 5th Battalions, US Army, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 43rd Division, with some members remaining in New Haven as Company C, 5th Battalion, Connecticut State Guard; dissolved 1946). Includes records of affiliated veterans groups; 2nd Company, Governor's Foot Guard; New Haven Blues (formed 1828 by dissident Grays); Guilford, CT, militia; Connecticut Naval Militia; and other Connecticut National Guard, Home Guard, and State Guard and US militia units; and accounts of British Public Record Office; materials of Connecticut Adjutant-General's Office; correspondence of Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati; and lists of veterans of New Haven and nearby towns, containing casualty and burial records. Research Topics: History of New Haven Grays; New Haven regiments in US wars; veterans buried in New Haven and nearby town cemeteries