The Wadsworth Antheneum is remembering the Civil War with its exhibit, “Colts & Quilts: The Civil War Remembered.” The exhibition captures intimate reactions by the American public to pivotal political and military events.

Costumed vignettes, paintings, sculpture, Colt firearms and decorative arts from the collection narrate stories of the anti-slavery movement, war-time volunteerism, mourning and reconciliation. The exhibit at the antheneum, 600 Main St. Hartford, will run through May 6.

“Connecticut sent some 55,000 men into battle between 1861 and 1865, and the monuments to be seen in towns all over the state bear witness to how many did not return. But it’s one thing to read statistics of the Civil War dead, and something else to look at a single black dress and mourning bonnet donated to the museum in 1924 by the granddaughter of the Berlin, Conn., woman who wore them in the 1860s,” states a review of the exhibit in The New York Times.