Colonel of the 19th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers and also the Colonel of the 2nd Regiment Connecticut Heavy Artillery Companies F & S.

Hartford Courant. 6 April 1895.

GENERAL I. W. WESSELLS: DEATH OF THE FORMER COLONEL OF THE SECOND HEAVIES.

General Leverett Ward Wessells of Litchfield died Thursday afternoon at Dover, Delaware in the 76th year of his age. The general went South early in the winter for the benefit of his health. He had been a sufferer from asthma for over thirty years and his death was caused by paralysis, a sequence of his general debilitated condition.

General Wessells was one of the best-known men in the state on account of his military service and political connections. He was a man of very large personal acquaintance and possessed an agreeable personality which will cause him to be pleasantly remembered by a large member of friends.

General Wessells was born in Litchfield, July 28, 1819, and was educated in the public schools and the local academy. When 26 years old, in 1846, he was appointed a deputy by Sheriff Albert Sedgwick of Litchfield, the father of Mrs. Gordon S. Whiting of this city, and who was sheriff of the county for eighteen years. General Wessells succeeded him as sheriff in 1851 and held the position until 1866. He was postmaster of Litchfield from 1850 to 1851 and afterwards remained as a clerk in the office. Henry A. Botsford of this city, now lying at the point of death, succeeded him as sheriff.

General Wessells' military life began at an early age. As early as 1849 he was captain of Company A, Fourth Regiment, Connecticut Militia, and remained in command until 1855 when the company was disbanded. When the Nineteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers (infantry) was organized in Litchfield county in July 1862, in response to the appeal of Governor Buckingham, which followed President Lincoln's call for 300,000 troops for the war, General Wessells was active in organizing the regiment. Judge A. H. Fenn of the supreme bench, now so seriously ill at his home in Winsted, was the first Lieutenant of Company K. General Wessells was commissioned colonel of the regiment July 28, 1862, and served as such until September 16, 1863, when he retired through ill health. Lieutenant-Colonel Elisha Kellogg, who was afterwards killed at the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, succeeded Colonel Wessells and in November 1863 the organization of the regiment was changed from infantry to artillery, and it became the Second Regiment, Heavy Artillery, Connecticut Volunteers.

Colonel Wessells returned to Litchfield, and in January 1861 was appointed by Governor Buckingham, provost marshal of the Fourth District, which position he held until the close of the war. After the war he became a member of the drug firm of Wessells & Gates of Litchfield and held an interest in the business at the time of his death, although the business was entirely conducted by his son, Colonel Henry W. Wessells.

In 1879, General Wessells served as the republican member for Litchfield in the General Assembly and was appointed quartermaster-general on the staff of Governor Charles B. Andrews, now chief justice. As a member of the House he served on the committee on railroads. In 1887 he returned to the House. His seat was unsuccessfully contested by the late Henry B. Graves. General Wessells was appointed House chairman of the committee on military affairs. He served for several years on the state board of charities and was at one time commander of Seth F. Plumb Post No 80, G.A.R., of Litchfield.

General Wessells leaves a son, Colonel Henry W. Wessells of Litchfield, an aide on Governor Collin's staff, and a daughter, Mrs. Gates, the wife of dr. Gates of Colorado Springs, Colorado, formerly of Litchfield. His wife, who was a daughter of Josiah Parks, who formerly drove the stage between Litchfield and Hartford, died about five years ago. General Wessells was a brother of the late General Henry Walton Wessells of the regular army. His son of the same name is a major in the Third United States Cavalry and a noted Indian fighter. It is a singular fact that General Wessells' brother, Henry Walton, died at Dover, Delaware., suddenly of heart disease. General Wessells had for several years spent the winter at Vineland, New Jersey, but for the last two previous years had preferred the climate of Colorado. The past winter he went to Dover, Delaware, where he had acquaintances.

General Wessells' body reached Litchfield last night and the funeral will be held from the Episcopal Church at 2 o'clock this afternoon.