Tag Archives: Winslow P. Spofford

Cemetery of Flies — Part II

The stench grew as Col. Harris Plaisted and an 11th Maine Infantry companion known only as “S” approached the front lines west of Seven Pines, Va. on Friday, June 19, 1862.* Here, on Saturday, May 31, Maj. Robert F. Campbell of Cherryfield had brought companies A, C, and F out of the 11th Maine camp […]

Cemetery of Flies — Part I

So big they all but clogged his horse’s nostrils, the swarming flies also targeted Col. Harris Plaisted as his nervous horse clopped across a sloppy Virginia field on Friday, June 19, 1862. Beside him a mounted 11th Maine Infantry Regiment officer — Plaisted commanded the battle- and disease-shredded unit — waved a hand at the […]

Sliced and diced 11th Maine fights in four pieces: Part I

With thousands of boiling angry Confederate troops knocking on his door, Col. Harris Plaisted could find only one piece of his 11th Maine Infantry Regiment at Seven Pines, Va. on Saturday, May 31, 1862. That left the other three pieces of the 11th Maine pie to fight independently under the splendid line officers (and a […]