The regimental ranks thinned by 18 men in mid-morning on Sunday, May 3, 1863, the 5th Maine Infantry boys may have figured the fighting was over for the day. For them, the blood-letting had scarcely begun. After Union regiments captured … Continue reading
After enjoying the “beautiful night” that slipped away with the dawn on May 3, 1863, 1st Lt. George Bicknell saw that Sunday turn decidedly ugly. Sheltered by the Virginia darkness, he stood with his 5th Maine Infantry comrades as they … Continue reading
The cost of war becomes evident at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 4, as the Bangor Museum and History Center opens a new exhibit titled “Bullets and Bandages: The Passions and Price of the Civil War.” Located in the Thomas A. … Continue reading
When the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment sought a doctor in the house in 1863, officers discovered that a medical student just would not do. The 1,000-odd men and boys who had marched to war with the 5th Maine two years … Continue reading
A war of words erupted in a Bangor newspaper in spring 1863 after an Army chaplain allegedly insulted the 26th Maine Infantry Regiment. For the use of one word in a letter written to the Daily Whig & Courier, the … Continue reading
Lagrange Severance showed promise as a fledgling travel agent … despite the faded blue uniform that he donned daily. When Col. George Shepley led the 12th Maine Infantry to war in November 1861, the delightfully named Lagrange marched along as … Continue reading
HOLDEN — Although a 150-year mystery has stymied the American military’s top forensics experts, Andy Bryan thinks the answer is his great-great-great uncle, William Bryan. Sixteen sailors died when the USS Monitor, the “cheesebox on a raft” that battled … Continue reading
During World War II, mothers and wives feared receiving a War Department telegram, usually the bearer of bad news about a son or husband. During the Vietnam War and every American war fought since then, families with male relatives in … Continue reading
To paraphrase the patriotic song “We Are Coming, Father Abraham,” by February 1863, the war-weary Maine veterans manning the nation’s ramparts from Virginia to Louisiana could “look across the hilltops that meet the southern sky,” where “long moving lines … Continue reading
After the Army sacked Capt. Edwin Batchelder for cowardice during the Battle of Fredericksburg, Gov. Abner Coburn sought a replacement to lead Co. B, 3rd Maine Infantry. He lacked no applicants, including Sgt. Rufus Crockett, a battle-hardened noncom who … Continue reading
