Tag Archives: Gaines Mill

New biography explains why Strong Vincent was “The Lion of Round Top”

Erie, Pennsylvania historian Hans G. Myers brings to life an overlooked Gettysburg hero with his new book, The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War, but readers must look past another officer altogether to learn about the warrior who led the 3rd Brigade […]

The 5th Maine boys tramped into a leaden hail

Heroes tramped into a leaden hail at Gaines Mill, Va. on Friday, June 27, 1862. From chapter 34 in my new book, Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, comes this adapted story involving the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. Nathaniel Jackson. When George McClellan decided to flee the Peninsula (the man […]

Gaines Mill: Part III — The 5th Maine marches into hell

  At 5:30 a.m. on Friday, June 27, 1862, Col. Nathaniel Jackson started the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment toward the fighting — at that moment only a large-scale shootout between opposing skirmishers — nears Gaines Mill east of Richmond. Jackson’s men marched with the 2nd Brigade led by Col. Joseph J. Bartlett. Fleshed out with […]

Gaines Mill: Part II — The 2nd Maine defends Boatswain’s Creek

  As the sun rose east of Richmond, Virginia on Friday, June 27, 1862, Charles W. Roberts knew that his 2nd Maine Infantry boys were “in” for it. The previous day, Colonel Roberts and the 2nd Maine had listened for hours as Confederate troops attacked Union soldiers entrenched along Beaver Dam Creek. A Pennsylvanian division […]

Gaines Mill: Part I — “The nearest run thing you ever saw”

  Looking from Maine in 2016 to Virginia in 1862, we cannot appreciate how, in the words of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, in speaking about Waterloo, the Battle of Gaines Mill was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life, by God!” George Brinton McClellan had split his Army of the Potomac […]