Tag Archives: 19th Maine Infantry Regiment

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 […]

A soldier named Moses

Moses Davis rubs shoulders with Joseph Simpson, a comrade these past 160 years. They probably knew each other way back when; if not, they have certainly had time to introduce themselves. Joe’s from Waterville, by the way. Moses has probably made acquaintances with his other next-door neighbor, Samuel C. Brookings, a youngster from Pittston. He […]

A soldier named America

A soldier named America sallied forth from northern Aroostook County to defend the United States in midsummer 1863. History also identified him as Americus, but America F. Bartlett he was — even if, given his patriotic first name, he possibly was less than enthusiastic about military service. America was a 22-year-old laborer from Forestville Plantation […]

Thomas Jackson was alive and well in Maine

Under his Bernard Bee-administered moniker “Stonewall,” Thomas J. (for “Jonathan”) Jackson of VMI and Lexington became a wartime celebrity. Revered in the South (which, like the North, lacked “winning” generals), Jackson ran amuck on the Valley, defeated just about every Union general he fought, and scared the bejeebers out of the Lincoln Administration whenever he […]

Mainers endured the “ominous silence” prior to Pickett’s Charge

As the eastern horizon barely paled on Friday, July 3, 1863, the 19th Maine Infantry lads shifted their position north “fifty-eight rods [858 feet], a little to the left of the copse of trees,” said Sgt. Silas Adams, Co. F. He referred to a scrub-oak grove clumped high on Cemetery Ridge’s western slope, near the […]

Artillery pounds 19th Maine lads prior to Pickett’s Charge

Twenty-two when he mustered as a corporal with Company I, 19th Maine Infantry Regiment on August 25, 1862, Edgar A. Burpee displayed leadership skills that saw him promoted to first lieutenant by summer 1863. Midcoast men filled Company I, commanded on the march north to Gettysburg by Capt. George D. Smith of Rockland. The towns […]

So you think you know Maine at Gettysburg, part 2

Here’s Part 2 of the Maine Monument Minutiae quiz involving Pine Tree State monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park. The answers are printed below. 1. Two Union generals lurk around the 2nd Maine Battery’s main monument on the Chambersburg Road. Who are those generals? 2. A small monument honoring a wounded Union general rises on […]

A long day’s tramp to Gettysburg, part 2

Their brogans and socks soaked after fording a stream, the 19th Maine Infantry lads tramped onward through the afternoon on Monday, June 29, 1863. The miles fell away across Maryland — and suddenly the regiment (Col. Francis Heath) and 1st Brigade (Brig. Gen. William Harrow) and 2nd Division (Brig. Gen. John Gibbon) led II Corps […]

A long day’s tramp to Gettysburg, part 1

As Part 1 noted, Pvt. John Day Smith would always remember Monday, June 29, 1863, when the 19th Maine Infantry Regiment “set out on the longest day’s march in its history.” From Litchfield in Androscoggin County, Smith belonged to Co. F, which would provide a rogue’s gallery of regimental historians long before the last 19th […]

J.E.B. Stuart kills a Mainer

  Editor’s note: This is the 400th post published by Maine at War Was it something in the apples the 19th Maine boys stole? Was it because they joined a mob in raiding a “friendly” sutler? Or was it simply a lucky shot by a Confederate gunner? Whatever the reason — bad luck, divine retribution […]