Rockville / Vernon
Alden Skinner Camp
Camp #45
Alden Skinner Camp #45's list of achievements has made it one of the most active camps in the United States. They own, maintain, and operate the New England Civil War Museum, and the O'Connell/Chapman Historical Research Library. They have an extensive outreach program to local towns, their citizens, and schools. The group has preserved one of the finest Civil War relic collections in New England, along with a tremendous amount of books, paintings, lithographs, original letters, and photographs dealing with the Civil War and the Grand Army. Each year, the Camp gives out a $500.00 scholarship to a graduating student of Rockville High School.
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Check out the museum at newenglandcivilwarmuseum.com!
Dr. Alden Skinner
When the Rockville Sons of Union Veterans Camp was chartered in the spring of 1890, its charter members decided to name it in honor of local doctor Alden B. Skinner. Known as a man with a "big heart" and having an "uncommonly strong and vigorous intellect," Skinner volunteered to serve his country in the fall of 1862 at the age of sixty-four. Commissioned a Surgeon in the 25th Connecticut Regiment, Skinner went with them to Louisiana in the winter of 1862/1863.
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On a return march from Port Hudson during a heavy rainstorm, he contracted malarious typhoid. Transported to the General Hospital in Baton Rouge, he died there on March 30, 1863, from the effects of his illness. His remains were shipped home and laid to rest at Grove Hill Cemetery in Rockville. Every year for Memorial Day members of Camp #45 decorates his grave in addition to other 120 Civil War veterans buried near him.
