Tag Archives: Baton Rouge

Battle of Baton Rouge hero drowns courtesy of the U.S. Navy

Confederates shot Reverend Joseph P. French, and his own navy drowned him. Born in Solon in Somerset County, the 35-year-old French was a Methodist clergyman living in Old Town in 1860 with his 34-year-old wife, Lucretia. They had three daughters: Clara (5), Sarah (4), and Josie (2). Hannah French, 64, lived with the family; she […]

It takes more than five bullets to kill this Mainer

If any 28th Maine Infantry Regiment soldier knew how to get himself shot, Charles H. Witham was the man. The son of dirt-poor Ira Witham (his wife’s name is illegible in the 1850 and 1860 censuses) of Surry, Charles was 17 and, like his older brothers Robert and Ira, a sailor in 1860. He was […]

The Maine connections with Grierson’s Raid, part 2

Two army officers affiliated with Bangor bookended Grierson’s Raid. You can read part 1 here. Leaving La Grange on a splendid April 17, 1863, Col. Benjamin H. Grierson rode south with 1,700 troopers unsure as to where they were going. The colonel intended to conduct the raid with his 6th Illinois Cavalry Regiment, the 7th […]

The Maine connections with Grierson’s Raid, part 1

The most successful cavalry raid conducted by North or South until the war’s closing months, the May 1863 expedition known as Grierson’s Raid saw two Union cavalry regiments and an artillery battery cut some 500 miles through interior Confederate-held Mississippi. Commanded by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson, the raiders tore up vital infrastructure and ran Confederate […]

A Maine cavalryman meets a legendary Union raider in Louisiana – Part III

  When he mounted his horse on Saturday, May 2, 1863, Capt. John Franklin Godfrey (“Frank” to his friends, relatives, and fellow officers) rode out to meet history — — and he became a historical footnote in doing so. Since raising Co. C of the 1st Louisiana Cavalry in New Orleans in late summer 1862, […]

Maine’s “Fighting Chaplain served his country in life and in death

Like the other soldiers belonging to the 14th Maine Infantry, Maine’s “Fighting Chaplain” lost his pants during a battle fought at Baton Rouge, La. on Aug. 5, 1862. Born in Litchfield in 1827 to William and Dorothy Bartlett, George Washington Bartlett prospected for California gold, graduated from Bowdoin College (’54), and became a Unitarian minister […]

A bad day for the Lincolns

  Friendly (gun)fire was “heard” as far away as Washington, D.C. after Confederate troops advanced to attack the 14th Maine Infantry Regiment and other Union units at Baton Rouge, La. on Aug. 5, 1862. On July 7, Col. Frank S. Nickerson led the green 14th Maine ashore at Baton Rouge after an uneventful steamboat cruise […]