It wasn't just men in uniform. It was their families back home too, especially the wives and mothers. There were also a variety of civilian occupations required to run a war, including civilian government employees, contract surgeons, State officials, sutlers, telegraph operators, members of the Christian and Sanitary Commissions.

Since the early days of our nation, America has been a melting pot, a mixture of many ethnic groups. The predominant groups evident in Vermont's Civil War effort were African Americans, Canadians and Irish. The purpose of this section is to at least list the nativity of these folks, if not provide some additional detail.

In addition, due to the kind offices of dozens of descendants, we have biographical sketches of many soldiers.