Bangor Historical Society plans busy Civil War weekend in Bangor

The Civil War returns to Bangor Friday-Sunday, July 28-30, as the Bangor Historical Society presents Drums on the Penobscot: A Civil War Experience at the UMA-Bangor campus.

The event-filled weekend will feature an encampment, skirmishes, talks and presentations by well-known Civil War historians and authors, artillery demonstrations, living history, a prisoner exchange, the Fate of a Deserter, and other activities. Visitors will have an opportunity to train as Civil War soldiers and meet Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain and his wife, Fanny, portrayed by Ted and Faye Chamberlain of Michigan.

Drums on the Penobscot will take place at Eastport Hall and on the grounds of UMA-Bangor, with access via Maine Avenue and Texas Avenue at Bangor International Airport.

Admission is free, and free parking is available on site.

Friday, July 28, 2017

6 p.m.: Soldiers at Rest, a Civil War walking tour of Mount Hope Cemetery on State Street in Bangor, will begin at the superintendent’s office. There are many interesting Civil War personalities buried in this beautiful cemetery. The cost is $10 per person.

 

Saturday, July 29, 2017

9 a.m.-5 p.m. — The Confederate and Union camps will open to the public. Scheduled activities/events will include:

・Children’s activities (throughout the day);

・Dress parade on Texas Avenue, with the Civil War re-enactors forming at 9:30 a.m. and the parade starting at 9:45 a.m.;

Pamela Weeks, the Binney Family Curator at the New England Quilt Museum, will speak about “Civil War Quilts and Union Soldiers” at Eastport Hall at UMA-Bangor on July 29.

・Civil War nurse demonstration (throughout the day);

・10 a.m., Eastport Hall: New England quilt historian Pamela Weeks, speaking on Civil War Quilts for Union Soldiers;

・10 a.m.-4 p.m.: The Thomas A. Hill House Museum at 159 Union Street will be open to the public. The museum is operated by the Bangor Historical Society.

・11 a.m., Eastport Hall: Battlefield preservationist and Civil War historian Nicholas Picerno, speaking on Merit is Better Than Fame (the history of the 1st-10th & 29th Maine Infantry regiments);

・11 a.m.: firing competition;

・11:30 a.m.: artillery demonstration;

・12 noon, Eastport Hall: Maine State Archivist David Cheever, speaking on Ready Or Not, Bangor Goes to War;

・1 p.m.: skirmish;

・11:30 p.m., Eastport Hall: Civil War author and historian Peter Dalton, speaking on The Life and War of Hiram Berry;

・2 p.m.: Visitors can learn how to drill like Civil War soldiers;

Ted and Faye Chamberlain will portray Joshua and Fanny Chamberlain during Drums on the Penobscot: A Civil War Experience, to be held July 28-30 at the UMA-Bangor campus.(Courtesy Photo)

・2:30 p.m., Eastport Hall: New England quilt historian Pamela Weeks, speaking on Civil War Quilts for Union Soldiers;

・3:30 p.m.: The Fate of a Deserter. Learn what happens when a soldier deserts his unit and gets caught while on the run;

・7 -9 p.m.: Cognac with Chamberlain. Visit with Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain and his wife, Fannie, at the Isaac Farrar Mansion at the corner of Union Street and Second Street in Bangor. Chamberlain will talk about the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment at Little Round Top. Admission is $25 per person and includes cognac and hors d’oeuvres.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

・9 a.m.-2 p.m. The Confederate and Union camps will open to the public. Scheduled activities/events will include:

・9 a.m.: Civil War-era worship service featuring a minister from the United States Christian Commission;

・Children’s activities (throughout the day);

・Civil War nurse demonstration (throughout the day);

・10 a.m.: firing competition;

Civil War author Diane Monroe Smith will speak about Joshua L. Chamberlain at Eastport Hall on the UMA-Bangor campus at 11 a.m., Sunday, July 30.

・10 a.m., Eastport Hall: Civil War author and historian Ned Smith, speaking on The Story of Two Maine Regiments in the Civil War;

・10:30 a.m.: artillery demonstration;

・11 a.m., Eastport Hall: Civil War author and historian Diane Monroe Smith, speaking on JLC 101: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, From Hero to Human Being;

・11 a.m.: prisoner exchange between Confederate and Union authorities

・12 noon, Eastport Hall: Battlefield preservationist and Civil War author Nicholas Picerno, speaking on The Death of General Joseph K Mansfield at Antietam;

・1 p.m.: skirmish;

・2 p.m.: The symposium will end, and re-enactors will break down their camps.


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. —————————————————————————————————————–

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

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

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.