Tag Archives: John Mead Gould

Chickens don’t fly at Christmas

With Christmas 1862 approaching, relatives and friends of Maine soldiers serving far afield packed and shipped boxes filled with holiday goodies. Women knitted warm socks and mittens and cooked and baked food for their menfolk so far away. Everything went carefully into a wooden box carefully marked with its recipient’s name and address (if only […]

Nurse Abba Goddard hears mention of the 10th Maine, part 4

Maine at War celebrates Women’s History Month with a four-part tale about nurse Abba Goddard and her adventures at Harpers Ferry during the Antietam Campaign. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. Cheers erupted (and probably echoed) across Harpers Ferry as civilians and paroled Union soldiers saw that “our […]

Suicide by sea

An obscure soldier’s file among the tens of thousands kept at the Maine State Archives describes one private as “Drowned in Long Island Sound.” He actually committed suicide by sea. After traveling by train from Boston to Fall River, the 10th Maine Infantry lads boarded the steamer State of Maine early on Monday, October 7, […]

The Baltimore incident, part 2

When news reached the 10th Maine Infantry Regiment on Monday, April 27, 1863 that all two-year enlistees would go home (except for those willing to stay in the army), joy exploded across the regiment’s Stafford County, Va. camp. Men kicked over barrel chimneys here and tossed “cartridges down them” there, said 1st Lt. John Mead […]

The Baltimore incident, part 1

While passing through Baltimore during the war, the 10th Maine Infantry Regiment developed close friendships with particular Unionists. One such friendship sparked two incidents not forgotten by the regiment’s survivors. The first incident involved Reuben Viele. Born in St. Francis, Province of Quebec, he migrated to Lewiston sometime before the war. Gray-eyed and black-haired, he […]

Maine heroes believed that “merit was worth more than fame”

Some Maine soldiers did not know when to quit, and that attitude led them to spend some five years in a Union uniform during — and after — the Civil War. Of the 32 infantry regiments (not counting the 1st Veteran Volunteers formed in Virginia) that Maine sent to war, three were directly related in […]

A Christmas gift from God and Abner Coburn

  At Camp Russell south of Winchester, Virginia, Capt. John Mead Gould of Portland and two other 29th Maine Infantry Regiment officers — George H. Nye of Lewiston and Alpheus L. Greene of Portland — received a particularly wonderful Christmas present on Friday, Dec. 23, 1864. The recent promotion of Col. George L. Beal of […]

Mud on the Mules

  Cold rain dripping from his campaign hat, Lt. Col. James “Jim” S. Fillebrown sat squarely in the saddle and watched the mucky chaos engulfing his 10th Maine Infantry Regiment on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1863. Until three days earlier, Fillebrown and his men had spent the early winter camping near Fairfax Court House in Virginia. […]

Images of the Dead

During the early months of the Civil War, civilians and soldiers — North and South alike — viewed war as a grand adventure comprising glittering cavalcades of marching soldiers and held-high flags. Then came the reality of war, experienced first on the battlefield by amateur soldiers in early summer 1861 and next by civilians some […]

Hang ’em, shoot ’em, just do something with ’em

After leaving his home to stroll through Portland on a pleasant June morning, John Mead Gould chased Confederate raiders, helped save innocent sailors from murder, and informed the Associated Press that the Civil War had come to Maine. All in all not a bad day’s work for a former soldier currently between battlefield gigs. Born […]