Tag Archives: Abraham Lincoln

Oliver Otis Howard recognizes the Copperhead threat

Home on furlough after Gettysburg, Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard feared that loyal Mainers (and Americans) might throw away at the ballot box the blood and guts spilled on the battlefield since April 1861. Sent to Maine to rest, Howard chafed to rejoin XI Corps. “It will be impossible for me to comply with any […]

Israel Washburn Jr. steps down as Maine’s first war-time governor

Late on Monday, January 5, 1863, a weary Governor Israel Washburn Jr. walked from his office to the Executive Council Chamber located elsewhere in the Maine State House in Augusta. But Washburn likely gave little thought to such concerns tonight. As he approached the Executive Council Chamber’s rosewood doors, the bespectacled and diminutive Washburn exchanged […]

Politicians’ anti-war resolutions angered returning Port Hudson veterans, part 1

Angered by resolutions passed during the Democratic State Convention held in Portland in early August 1863, “life long Democrat” Col. Elijah D. Johnson and his battle-hardened 21st Maine Infantry veterans organized an ad hoc meeting, discussed the situation, and “unanimously adopted” their own resolutions counterpointing the Democratic ones. The fact that the Maine lads held […]

The 1863 draft nabs a Lincoln-hating newspaper editor

Since acquiring the Republican Journal in May 1858, William H. Simpson had unabashedly shared his political opinions with his readers in Belfast and elsewhere. Thundering against Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party, emancipation, and blacks since late 1862, he vehemently opposed the Civil War in a city committed to Union victory. And now the Lincoln Administration […]

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, part 1

The Civil War literally and figuratively scarred Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — and caused him to write a poem that became a Christmas song. The famous poet is a native Mainer, being born in Portland to Stephen and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow on February 27, 1807. The Maine Historical Society owns and operates the poet’s childhood home […]

New knees and all, Maine re-enactor marches on Gettysburg’s 2022 Remembrance Day

Carrying a full pack, one Maine-based Civil War re-enactor participating in this year’s Remembrance Day parade at Gettysburg ventured forth on “my new knees” replaced last year. Not knowing how well they would handle the long march to the Gettysburg National Cemetery, he went forth proudly representing Maine heroes who had fought at Gettysburg 159 […]

Enjoying Dunkin’s coffee with Hannibal Hamlin

Imagine meeting Vice President Hannibal Hamlin for hot coffee and a doughnut, maybe a Boston cream doughnut (popular in New England). Imagine settling into comfortable chairs at a local coffee shop and chatting with Hannibal Hamlin about his vice presidency and his opinion of Abraham Lincoln. Where we live in Hampden, Maine, the idea isn’t […]

Enrollment Act laid out the new national draft in detail

Note: This is one in a series of posts about the national draft and its impact on Maine. The Lincoln Administration had threatened a draft to stimulate recruitment in summer 1862, but settled for nine-month regiments to get enough men into uniform for the following winter. Fewer volunteers rallied around the flag by midwinter ’63, […]

Yakking about Lincoln sinks a Phippsburg officer

There’s a time to yap and a time to shaddup, as a promising Maine officer discovered in winter 1863. Having toyed with its wording for months, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in autumn 1862 and set January 1, 1863 as its effective date. All slaves in areas hostile to the United States government […]

Organizers, re-enactors deem Drums on the Penobscot a “huge success”

It’s not every day that Maine artillerymen fire a salute to President Abraham Lincoln, but such was the order of the day as the Bangor Historical Society hosted Drums on the Penobscot: A Civil War Experience, held August 10-12 on the UMA-Bangor campus at Bangor International Airport. The second annual Civil War weekend organized by […]