Ultimately, he ended up in Middletown’s Beman Triangle, where he was a prominent figure at the Cross Street AME Zion Church. Some say he bought his freedom, while other reports claim he had escaped from slavery. There are varying reports of how Truitt ended up in Middletown, Nasta said.

“I just think Truitt is really amazing,” Nasta said. Nasta said there were at least 17 African American Civil War soldiers from Middletown, and Truitt, who was in his 40s at the time, was likely the oldest to enlist. Six of the gravestones in the cemetery mark the resting place of Beman Triangle natives who fought in the Civil War, including Isaac Truitt, whose house still stands today on Vine Street. Much of the land around Knowles Avenue, Vine Street and Cross Street was part of this historic district, that is now formally known as the Leveritt Beman Historic District, which also includes the Washington Street cemetery. “That area remained Middletown’s African American center for decades,” Nasta said. The community formed in the 1820s and remained predominantly comprised of Black residents for almost a century. The historic Beman Triangle was a pre-Civil War community comprised of free, property-owning African Americans, and was one of the first planned African American communities in Connecticut. “It’s a very significant site,” said Nasta, who is also the executive director of the Middlesex County Historical Society.

Middletown civil war hospital