Tag Archives: Camp Franklin

Maine musician watches the Army kill a deserter

A Portland soldier could not wait to share the gory details he saw while witnessing the first execution of a Union soldier during the Civil War. On Dec. 14, 1861, Pvt. Samuel Franklyn Parcher — he went by “Franklyn” or “Frank” — wrote a letter to his friend James O. Parsons, with whose family Parcher […]