author
Winthrop Dudley Sheldon
1839–1931
A Civil War veteran turned teacher and clergyman, he wrote with the close-up detail of someone who had lived the history himself. His best-known book preserves the story of the 27th Connecticut Volunteers and the people who served in it.
1 Audiobook
The "Twenty-Seventh": A Regimental History
by Winthrop Dudley Sheldon
About the author
Born in Raymond, New Hampshire, on December 18, 1839, he was educated at Yale, earning a B.A. in 1861, followed by later graduate and divinity degrees. During the Civil War he served with the 27th Connecticut Volunteers, an experience that shaped the book for which he is best remembered, The "Twenty-Seventh": A Regimental History.
After the war, he built a varied career in education and ministry. Records from the Database of Classical Scholars note that he taught Greek at the Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn and later served in Congregational ministry, combining scholarship, teaching, and pastoral work across his long professional life.
He also wrote other historical and commemorative works, including The Ex-Presidents of the United States, How Each Played the Rôle. He died on January 19, 1931, leaving behind writing that is especially valuable for readers interested in the Civil War and the educated Protestant world of nineteenth-century America.