Tag Archives: Bucksport

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 […]

The 6th Maine Infantry’s heroes meet 50 years later

Ellsworth rolled out the red carpet when the 6th Maine Infantry’s elderly survivors converged on the Hancock County shiretown 50 years after going forth to defend the Union. When the 2nd Maine Infantry Regiment left Bangor for Washington, D.C. by train on May 14, 1861, five unattached companies remained at Camp Washburn. These companies were […]

Sumter’s 9/11 aftermath: Old Hancock County speaks

The Fort Sumter attack sparked patriotic fervor never before seen in eastern Maine. Ellsworth-area residents rallied “for the Union” at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 23. Gathering “in the Square, near the Post Office,” a “large assemblage” watched as rally organizers selected Arno Wiswell as the event’s chairman (a typical mid-19th-century practice). Likely standing so he […]

Confederate pirates learn not to mess with a Maine woman

  Believing she was threatened with rape, a Maine woman turned the tables on her Confederate captors one dark night in the Caribbean in early January ’63. That month found the 233-ton brig J.P. Ellicott (out of Bucksport) sailing from Boston to Cienfuegos in Cuba to pick up cargo. Aboard the two-masted ship were some […]

Orland sailor finally gets his due

Maine isn’t known for its Civil War sites. The battles took place far away, no national park extols combat on Maine soil, and tourists don’t flock here to see monuments to Civil War heroes. Yet the monuments exist, as do Maine heroes, and as for Maine place names related directly to the war, well, you […]