Tag Archives: Bethel

A soldier named Milo

He was one of a kind, the soldier named Milo Keech. Born to Hazen and Abigail (Swan) Keech in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1833, Milo moved eastward to Bethel with his family about 10 years later. The town’s 1850 census indicated that he was 17, living with his parents (Hazen was a millwright) and four […]

Split in two

Did what happen to Ariel Tolman Carver in death reflect something that happened in life? He may have been split in two, in more ways than one. Born in 1843 in Paris in Oxford County, Ariel is one of those mid-19th century people who’s simply “there,” whose background requires some digging. He was one of […]

Courtroom wars part 1 – Corinna promises its recruits big bucks

Note: We thank attorney Joseph G. Donahue, a re-enactor with Co. A, 3rd Maine Infantry, for providing the Maine Supreme Judicial Court opinion that sparked this three-part post. A deal was a deal, John Winchester believed, and his hometown selectmen had better keep their end of the bargain — or else. Born January 25, 1822 […]

Fort Hell and the 7th Maine Battery, part 1

Ordered to shoot when he wasn’t supposed to, Senior 1st Lt. William Berry Lapham of the 7th Maine Battery promptly complied — and all hell quickly broke loose at the Petersburg position that Union soldiers called “Fort Hell.” An Oxford County man to his core — born in Greenwood, raised in Bethel, settled into a […]

Charged up to fight: 4th Maine Battery rolls toward Cedar Mountain — Part II

After catching a few winks at their camp north of Culpeper, Va. on Aug. 9, 1862, the gunners of the 4th Maine Battery got up and tended to their horses, cannons, and equipment. Led by Capt. O’Neil W. Robinson Jr. of Bethel, the Maine artillerymen expected to “see the elephant” (experience their first battle) on […]

Father and son lie in separate unmarked graves in Maine and North Carolina

  Do the father-and-son Mainers who went off to save the Union both lie in unmarked graves? Tracey McIntire of Maryland is not sure where the father lies, but she has visited the burial site of the son — and it’s definitely not marked with his name, no thanks to the Veterans Administration. Henry Herrick […]

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 […]