Drums on the Penobscot to bring the Civil War to Bangor July 28-30

BANGOR — Quilt historian Pamela Weeks, Major General Joshua L. Chamberlain, several noted Civil War historians and authors, and Civil War re-enactors are highlighting Drums on the Penobscot: A Civil War Experience, slated to take place on the UMA-Bangor campus on Friday through Sunday, July 28-30.

Sponsored by the Bangor Historical Society, the event-filled weekend will feature an encampment, skirmishes, talks and presentations, artillery demonstrations, living history, a prisoner exchange, the trial and execution of a military deserter, and other activities. Visitors will have an opportunity to train as Civil War soldiers and to meet a Maine legend from the Civil War —

— because Joshua L. Chamberlain and his wife, Fanny, are attending Drums on the Penobscot.

The weekend’s activities will take place at the UMA-Bangor campus, with access via Maine Avenue and Texas Avenue at Bangor International Airport. Admission will be free, and the military camps will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunday.

Free parking will be available on site.

Ted and Faye Chamberlain will portray Joshua and Fanny Chamberlain during Drums on the Penobscot: A Civil War Experience. Ted and Joshua Chamberlain share a common ancestor in colonial Massachusetts. (Courtesy Photo)

Anchoring Drums on the Penobscot are three Maine-based Civil War re-enactor groups: Co. B, 20th Maine Infantry Regiment; Co. G, 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment; and Co. D, 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters. All three units will participate in Saturday’s dress parade and the skirmishes planned for both days.

Pamela Weeks, Binney Family Curator of the New England Quilt Museum, will speak at Drums on the Penobscot: A Civil War Experience on Saturday, July 29, 2017. She wrote the 2013 book, Civil War Quilts. (Courtesy Photo)

A famous quilt historian and lecturer, Pamela Weeks is the Binney Family Curator of the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts and is the author of the book Civil War Quilts, published in 2013. “I work with many different quilters, collectors, institutions, and co-conspirators to plan exhibits for the museum, and research the quilts in the museum’s collection,“ she said.

Weeks will talk about Civil War quilts and quilting at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., Saturday, July 29.

Visitors to Drums on the Penobscot can meet Joshua Chamberlain and his wife, Fanny, portrayed by Ted and Faye Chamberlain of Michigan. Ted and Joshua share an ancestor from colonial Massachusetts, and Ted often portrays his famous Maine kin at national re-enactments, including in April 2015 at the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House.

The Chamberlains, Joshua and Fanny, will also mingle with guests from 7-9 p.m., Saturday, as the Bangor Historical Society presents Cognac With Chamberlain at the Isaac Farrar Mansion at 17 Second Street in Bangor. Admission will be $20 for BHS members and $25 for non-members.

The Civil War historians and authors participating in Drums on the Penobscot include:

Nicholas Picerno, chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and the nation’s leading expert on the 1st-10th-29th Maine infantry regiments, will speak at Drums on the Penobscot; A Civil War Experience in Bangor in late July. (Courtesy Photo)

• Nicholas Picerno, chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and the nation’s leading expert on the 1st-10th-29th Maine infantry regiments.

• David Cheever, Maine State Archivist. He is active in the presentation of Maine’s Civil War history to schools and the public throughout the state.

• Peter Dalton of Northport. He and his wife, Cyndi, have written or edited eight Civil War-related books, including With Our Faces to the Foe, The Blanket Brigade, Soldiers in Green, and Into the Valley of Death.

• Ned and Diane Smith of Holden. Ned has written detailed histories of the 22nd Maine Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Maine Cavalry Regiment. Diane, a nationally authorized authority on Joshua Chamberlain, has published several Civil War-related books, including two about Chamberlain: Fanny & Joshua and Chamberlain at Petersburg.

For more details, log onto http://www.bangorhistoricalsociety.org/drums-on-the-penobscot-a-civil-war-experience/


If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to like Maine at War on Facebook and get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. —————————————————————————————————————–

Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.