Vermont in the American Civil War

According to Rachel Cree Sherman:[1]By the spring of 1865 Vermont was devastated, having sent one tenth of its entire population to war, with a loss of over 5,000 lives to battle, wounds, and disease.

[3] In the closing days of 1860, in response to a pro-Southern resolution by Representative Albert Rust of Arkansas, Vermont Representative Justin S. Morrill offered an amendment, "Resolved, That in the opinion of this committee, the existing discontent among the Southern people and the growing hostility to the Federal Government, are greatly to be regretted, and that any reasonable, proper and constitutional remedy necessary to preserve the peace of the country, and the perpetuity of the Union, should be promptly and cheerfully grant."

Vermont politicians in Congress included Senators Solomon Foot and Jacob Collamer and Representatives Justin S. Morrill, Homer Elihu Royce and Portus Baxter.

"[5] Governor Smith oversaw the recruitment of Vermont's last infantry regiment, a third light artillery battery, and, as a result of a Confederate raid on his hometown, St. Albans, two companies of frontier cavalry.

With the nation's oldest senior military college, Norwich University, located in Vermont, the state provided the Union with numerous officers.

Historian Howard Coffin claimed that the state's most important contribution to the war was at the Battle of the Wilderness where the Vermont Brigade held the crucial intersection of two roads, the loss of which would have split the Union forces in half.

They also played a crucial role at the Battle of Gettysburg, where, under General George J. Stannard, the 2nd Vermont Brigade broke Pickett's charge by stepping out of a protected area and firing at the flank of the attackers.

Others served in other states' units or in the Regular Army, including Benjamin Alvord, John C. Caldwell, Sylvester Churchill, Joel Dewey, Charles Doolittle, William B. Hazen, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Charles Edward Hovey, Joseph A. Mower, Thomas E. G. Ransom, Israel B. Richardson, Benjamin S. Roberts, Truman Seymour, George Crockett Strong, Stewart Van Vliet, and George Wright.

Six Vermonters became brevet brigadier general, including Asa P. Blunt, George P. Foster, William W. Henry, John R. Lewis, Edward H. Ripley and Charles B. Stoughton.

After the St. Albans raid on October 19, 1864, Vermont fielded two companies of Frontier Cavalry, who spent six months on the Canada–US border to prevent further incursions from Confederate raiders.

On October 19, 1864, Confederate raiders, under the command of Lieutenant Bennett H. Young, robbed three banks, escaped to Canada, were captured, and put on trial.