Tag Archives: R.H. Stanley

Belfast builds better batteries

After Confederates cut out the Revenue Service cutter Caleb Cushing from Portland Harbor in late June 1863, panicked Maine politicians envisioned will ’o the wisp Southern sea raiders capturing merchant ships and sacking towns all along the coast. If the Johnnies could float undetected past Portland’s stout defenses, what chances had undefended Rockland, Belfast, Castine, […]

Did Daniel Chaplin develop a death wish?

  Did Col. Daniel Chaplin lose his desire to live after watching the annihilation of his beloved 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment at Petersburg on Saturday, June 18, 1864? Yes, surmised Pvt. Joel Brown of Orono and Co. I. And Chaplin’s own behavior suggests the behavior of a man who cared not if he lived […]