nfortunately for Middletown, and for all American ports, the great struggle between Europe and Napoleon had serious repercussions on our trade, with both England and France seizing American ships. In an effort to protect its citizens, Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 and Madison's Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 resulted in ruining New England commerce. Hardly had these acts expired in 1812 when the nation plunged into war against Great Britain. The war was so unpopular in New England that the state legislatures refused to let their militias serve outside state boundaries.

The war came close to Middletown, with the British ravaging Essex and destroying the ships there. Middletown resident Commodore Thomas Macdonough, in command of the light naval forces on Lake Champlain, decisively defeated a heavy British squadron in 1814, compelling the enemy to withdraw from their invasion of northern New York. After his death at sea in 1825, Macdonough's remains were brought home to rest in Middletown's Riverside Cemetery.

From this struggle, American export trade dropped from $61,000,000 to less than $7,000,000. After 1810, commerce in general declined in small ocean ports like Salem, Massachusetts, and small river ports like Middletown, and centered, instead, in large cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. With this shift, enterprise in Middletown turned to manufacturing.

Middletown might have become a major industrial city without its difficulty over transportation. When the railroads appeared in the 1830s and it was proposed to build a line between Hartford and New Haven, Middletown was divided about the desirability of being on the line. Surveys eventually convinced railroad officials that the Middletown route would be both indirect and expensive in view of the grades and heavy cutting.

When the Civil War cast its shadow over the land, Middletown rallied to the country as it had done in the Revolution. It contributed over $5,000,000 and sent 958 men into service from a population of less than 9,000 in 1860. These men fought on many of the principal battlefields of the war. On April 17, 1861, Governor Buckingham called for volunteers, and, on April 20th, Company A of the 2nd Connecticut was complete -- every man from Middletown. One company of the 4th Connecticut marched away on May 16th, composed entirely of Wesleyan students. The 29th Connecticut, an African American unit, was composed of many soldiers from Middletown, including James Powers, Truman Camm, Christian Gordon, Isaac Truitt, and Rufus Addison.

General Joseph K. F. Mansfield, of Middletown, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 leading his corps in an assault against that part of Lee's army under the command of Stonewall Jackson. His body was brought back to Middletown and buried with full honors in Indian Hill Cemetery. His home at 151 Main Street is now a museum and headquarters for the Middlesex County Historical Society, open to the public.

Prior to the Civil War there were also numerous notable abolitionists and "conductors" in the Underground Railroad in Middletown. These included Clarissa Beman, an African American woman who founded the "Colored Female Anti-Slavery Society" in 1834, the second of its kind in the United States. Also of note was Jesse Baldwin, who lived in a house at the corner of Broad Street and William Street (where Color Mart is now) and helped numerous runaway slaves to freedom. These and others had helped abolish slavery in Connecticut in 1848, and continued to contribute to the cause of freedom throughout the war.

Despite wars and preoccupation with industry and commerce, Middletown did not forget other important factors. In an effort to secure an institution of higher learning, the town authorities offered inducements in 1824 to locate Washington College here. This effort failed, and that institution was established in Hartford, later to be known as Trinity College.

The town had more success persuading Captain Alden Partridge, a former superintendent of West Point, to move his Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy from Norwich, Vermont. A dormitory and a chapel (Wesleyan's North and South Colleges today) were constructed, and the Academy opened in 1825. Since the Legislature refused to grant academic degrees, the Academy returned to Norwich in 1829, when the buildings were secured by the Methodist Episcopal Church. Wesleyan University was then launched in 1831, under President Wilbur Fisk.

It is perhaps appropriate that on High Street, where Wesleyan fronts -- the street which Charles Dickens is reputed to have considered the most beautiful in America -- some of the most successful Middletown residents built their mansions in the nineteenth century.

The city established a high school in 1840, and the state opened a hospital in 1868. In 1875, the Russell Library was established by Mrs. Frances Ann Russell in memory of her husband Samuel, a prominent Middletown merchant and trader. And for the year of 1872, Middletown actually had a professional baseball team, the Middletown Mansfields, named after General Mansfield of the Civil War.