Leverett H. Gladding was born around 1840 in Connecticut to James and Martha Gladding. His father was a farmer who owned $2,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property in 1860. Gladding grew up and attended school in Berlin, Connecticut, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer on Gustavus Upson’s farm. He befriended Upson’s children, including his daughter Alice and his son Royal, and he corresponded with him over the following year. Gladding enlisted in the Union army on October 8, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company I of the 9^th Connecticut Infantry on October 16. The army stationed the men in Mississippi, and they spent the summer of 1862 building a canal that would enable Union ships to bypass the Confederate artillery at Vicksburg. The work, however, took a heavy toll on the regiment, and roughly 150 men died of disease between July and October in 1862. Gladding was apparently among them, passing away on August 12, 1862. 

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