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
The characters and confusion that surrounded Ulysses Simpson Grant in springtime 1864 Virginia come vividly to life in “Command Conflicts in Grant’s Overland Campaign,” the latest book by noted local Civil War author Diane Monroe Smith. She lives in Holden. … Continue reading
In “Gone With The Wind,” Southern civilians wait for the Gettysburg casualty lists in a particularly heart-wrenching scene. As parents and friends frantically scan the long printed lists, women scream and men blanch. Beloved husbands, sons, and brothers are either … Continue reading
Not until six Confederate bullets accomplish what Comanche arrows could not does Bangor finally claim the Foxcroft kid named for a Navy hero. Susan (Heald) Carpenters bears her husband, Joshua, a son in Foxcroft on May 14, 1818. A … Continue reading
Neither burning barracks nor smallpox nor “the enemy’s bullets flying in all directions” could stay Abial Hall Edwards from the not-so-swift completion of his appointed goal: courting Anna Lucinda Conant by wartime mail. Edwards and Conant met on the job … Continue reading
Absolutely nobody wanted to stand down wind of Kenduskeag’s Frederick A.H. Stackpole on Friday, Jan. 24, 1879 — or on Saturday, Sunday, and probably Monday, too. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Union veterans formed the Grand Army of … Continue reading
Seven days after surviving a horrific battle in Virginia in August 1862, Abial Hall Edwards shared his vivid memories with the young Maine woman who would one day become his wife. Had one particular Confederate bullet zipped a few … Continue reading
The price of war came home to Kenduskeag during late winter 1863. In August 1862, brothers Leonard E. Kenneston and Thomas E. Kenneston left Kenduskeag to join Co. H, 16th Maine Infantry Regiment. Their mother, Julia, had died two years … Continue reading
Edwin Batchelder ran away and lived — but he should have died. John Ayer stayed and died — but he should have lived. Thus occurred the tale of two captains at Fredericksburg. Hailing from Augusta, Batchelder (also spelled “Bachelder”) … Continue reading
As Confederate infantrymen advance through the battle smoke with bayonets lowered, two nervous Maine infantrymen exercise discretion rather than valor. They drop their muskets, kneel, and raise their arms in surrender. And that’s “a wrap” for a Maine Public Broadcasting … Continue reading
