Colonel Thomas G. Kingsley

During the first weeks of September, 1862, the companies raised in various towns of New London and Windham counties, as well as some enlistees from Middlesex and Tolland counties, began to converge on a four-acre lot on the fairgrounds at Norwich. Here, on the parade ground and in long leaky barracks lighted by candles and heated by stoves, the Twenty-Sixth Regiment took shape. The first order of business was the election of officers. Since the Twenty-Sixth Regiment was technically a militia unit, the men of each company elected the officers for their company. These line officers, in turn, elected the regimental field officers: colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major. Thomas G. Kingsley of Franklin was the man elected to be colonel.

He had previousley served eight years as a colonel of the third regiment of militia. Colonel Kingsley led his regiment in the ill-fated charge across "slaughter's field" on May 27th, 1863, at Port Hudson, Louisiana. During the charge, Colonel Kingsley was shot through the face, with the ball passing through his mouth and destroying his upper jaw. He also suffered a gunshot wound to his wrist. Colonel Kingsley returned to Connecticut where he tried to resume a normal life. But to his neighbors he was a changed man, prone to eccentric behavior. Unfortunately, the scars of war never totally healed and approximatley 20 years after the war, he was committed to an insane asylum in Middletown, Connecticut, where he remained until his death.