Civil War
On May 2, 1861, Phelps was appointed Colonel of the 1st Vermont Infantry and was mustered into U.S. service on May 8. His regiment arrived at Fortress Monroe, Virginia on May 13. On May 27, commanding the 1st Vermont Infantry, 4th Massachusetts Infantry and 7th New York Infantry, Phelps moved 10 miles to Newport News, at the mouth of the James River.
He was promoted to brigadier general on May 27, 1861. In November, 1861, he was transferred to the Department of the Gulf under Major General Benjamin F. Butler, and Phelps left on an expedition to the Gulf of Mexico where his regiment took military possession of Ship Island, Mississippi. His regiment supported Commodore David Farragut's fleet in forcing open the Lower Mississippi in April, 1862. They participated in taking possession of Fort Jackson and St. Philip, Louisiana at the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which was instrumental in the capture of New Orleans, the largest city of the Confederacy, on May 1, 1862.
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“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
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