Tag Archives: Seth C. Farrington

Bad intelligence leads to a nasty surprise near New Orleans

A Benjamin Butler-ordered raid cost the 12th Maine Infantry Regiment some 30 men in late summer 1862. On Saturday, September 13, “Acting General” (actually Army Major) George C. Strong (a native Vermonter) sallied forth with Union troops to attack Ponchatoula, a “village” located 48 miles from New Orleans. Strong planned to destroy a New Orleans, […]

The Letter to the Widow

Note: Memorial Day is Monday, May 27 After watching a young Maine soldier slip into eternity, Nathaniel P. Banks shared the captain’s last moments in a poignant letter to his widow. Born in Exeter, the teen-aged Abbott Coan moved to Orono in the early 1850s. Eschewing the initial patriotic call to arms in spring 1861, […]