Coen Street
By Sandra Clark

Coen Street was name for Michael P. Coen, one of the best known Civil War Veterans in Connecticut. This street is on the east side of town. It is a dead end street which can be entered from Oak Street. At the end of the street sits Immanuel Lutheran Church.

Michael Coen was born in Ireland on July 12, 1843, the son of Michael and Catherine (McCaffrey) Coen. The family including Michael Sr., Catherine, elder brother John, and Michael migrated to the U.S. in 1849. They settled in Waterbury where Michael was educated.

When Fort Sumter in North Carolina was fired upon, the Rev. Thomas F. Hendricken, Pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury, called a meeting of the young men of the parish. A company was formed requiring an enlistment for three months. It was later mustered as Company F into the Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, known as “The Irish Regiment”. Michael, who was 18 years old, was the youngest member of the Company. He was discharged in October 1864, but re-enlisted. He became a member of the U.S. Signal and Telegraph Company until the war ended.

His war engagements were many, most of which were served in Louisiana. He was hospitalized in Baton Rouge in 1862. Read below Michael Coen’s own words telling of his experience in the Civil War written in 1895.

“I was detailed with one member to procure some horses and fell into a trap through false information, but, owing to the speed of my horse escaped under a running crossfire. The important events were the capture of the 3rd Mississippi Regiment Colours, capture of New Orleans and the death of my father and brother in the U.S. Service.”

This quote and accounts written by 62 other Naugatuck veterans of the Civil War can be seen at the Naugatuck Historical Society Museum. It is written in a bound volume called The Memorial Record of Isabell Post #43. Grand Army of the Republic.

After four years of service, Michael returned to Waterbury and later moved to Naugatuck. Here, in 1866, he married Catherine Mulvey. He became an active member of St. Francis Church. He also purchased the property on which the church was built and the land for St. Francis Cemetery on High Street.

As a citizen and business man he was connected with many of Naugatuck’s public enterprises. He was owner and manager of the Salem Spring Ice Co.

In 1894, he was appointed a delegate to the National Convention of the GAR at Pittsburg, PA. He was one of four delegates who returned to the third Mississippi the colours which had been captured by the Ninth Connecticut in New Orleans in 1862. He was selected by the Regimental officers to pose for the model of the statue erected by the Ninth Regiment. It was placed at Bay View Park, City Point, New Haven, Connecticut.

Michael P. Coen died in Naugatuck on April 15, 1910, in his 67th year. He is buried in St. Francis Cemetery.

Source - Naugatuck Historical Society Newsletter, November–December 2005 issue