Isaac F. Nettleton and his nephew, Charles D. Blinn, were inspired to form a regiment in Litchfield County. Blinn and Nettleton sought advice from Samuel W. Gold, founder of the Cream Hill Agricultural Institute. Gold sent a letter of recommendation on their behalf to Governor Buckingham and, on October 26, 1861, Blinn and Nettleton traveled to Hartford with Gold’s son, Theodore S. Gold, to receive their papers authorizing them to begin recruiting for what was to become Company C of the 13th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. Nettleton was in charge of recruiting in Kent, where he was living at the time.

Isaac Nettleton was the regiment’s first officer to die, succumbing to disease at New Orleans in September 1862. Although Nettleton was a resident of Kent for many years before the war began, he was born in Cornwall and his parents remained here until their deaths long after the war was over. Nettleton is included as a Cornwall soldier due to his close family ties to Cornwall; had his body been better embalmed, he would surely have been buried in the family plot at the Cornwall Hollow Cemetery.