Recent photos suggest the Little Round Top restoration is winding down

Photos recently released by the National Park Service suggest that the too-long-by-far closure and restoration of Little Round Top may soon end. The NPS closed LRT and its approach roads in July 2022 for a restoration project scheduled to take 12 to 18 months to complete (as advertised then). The project’s complexity obviously made 12 […]

Confederate cat kills a Maine soldier

The last Confederate that Corp. Nahum H. Hall ever thought could kill him was an angry tabby, perhaps Sgt. Puss N. Boots, First Florida Feline Regiment. Hall, a Rockland resident, was 33 when he enlisted as a private in in Co. G, 28th Maine Infantry Regiment, a nine-month regiment that mustered at Camp E.D. Keyes […]

Bath taxes the rich to recruit 90 soldiers

Known as the City of Ships, Bath on the lower Kennebec River already swarmed with soldiers when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton issued General Order No. 94 on August 4, 1862. The order called for the loyal states to draft 300,000 militia for nine months’ service in the army. On Tuesday, July 8, Maine […]

Maine responds when Lincoln Administration threatens to draft the militia

The immediate and historical attention given the New York draft riots suggest that July 1863 was the first time the Lincoln Administration organized a national draft. That’s incorrect. Let’s rewind the draft clock 11 months to Monday, August 4, 1862, when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton issued General Order No. 94. It mandated “that […]

Battle of Baton Rouge hero drowns courtesy of the U.S. Navy

Confederates shot Reverend Joseph P. French, and his own navy drowned him. Born in Solon in Somerset County, the 35-year-old French was a Methodist clergyman living in Old Town in 1860 with his 34-year-old wife, Lucretia. They had three daughters: Clara (5), Sarah (4), and Josie (2). Hannah French, 64, lived with the family; she […]

The Confederate standing watch at Frankfort, Kentucky

They were Americans who later called themselves Confederates. Killed in battle or by wounds, disease, or old age, they lie together for eternity, their graves placed circularly within the obscure Confederate Cemetery in the 100-acre Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky. And they lie almost forgotten, except by Civil War buffs or those descendants remembering distant […]

Maine soldiers watch the army disintegrate in winter 1863, part 2

The arrival of Joe Hooker at Army of the Potomac headquarters in late January 1863 stirred interest, trepidation, and many questions. Within weeks he instituted morale-building improvements that restored the army’s elan. “Never was the magic influence of a single man more clearly shown than when Hooker assumed command,” said Capt. Charles P. Mattocks, 17th […]

Maine soldiers watch the army disintegrate in winter 1863, part 1

Despite all the immorality-related baggage (drinking, carousing with prostitutes, etc.) historically associated with him, Joseph Hooker helped save the Union in winter 1863. In the regimental camps sprinkled across Stafford County opposite Fredericksburg, morale all but collapsed that midwinter. Ambrose Burnside had ordered the Army of the Potomac to outflank the Confederates dug in at […]

A Prince for Joshua Chamberlain

A surprised Joshua L. Chamberlain received a unique present before departing for war with the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment. Several “energetic friends” (identified by the Brunswick Telegraph as W. R. Field, S. R. Jackson, “and a few others”) purchased “a splendid dapple gray horse and trappings [saddle, bit, reins, etc.] to match.” Its previous owner, […]

Gardiner teen-ager in the 2nd Maine Battery exemplified Maine’s best

His hometown newspaper thought Charles T. Sprague “would … have made an excellent soldier.” Boy, did the press ever get that wrong. According to the 1860 U.S. Census for Gardiner, Josiah L. W. Sprague (the “W” was for “Winter”) was a 44-year-old “house carpenter” with real estate worth $2,600. He and his wife, Melinda Joy […]