Tag Archives: Vicksburg

Politicians’ anti-war resolutions angered returning Port Hudson veterans, part 2

As a Boston & Maine Railroad train carried the 21st Maine Infantry Regiment toward home on Friday, August 7, 1863, Col. Elijah D. Johnson and his surviving officers read the resolutions passed two days earlier during the Democratic State Convention held in Portland. History does not record who read the resolutions aloud on that rattling […]

A Maine angel of mercy completed his mission at Port Hudson

Playing “angel of mercy” briefly cost Charlie Blake his freedom at Port Hudson, La. in late spring 1863. Hailing from Portland, 21-year-old Charles H. Blake had enlisted in Co. B, 12th Maine Infantry Regiment as a corporal in November 1861. The regiment accompanied Ben Butler’s New Orleans expedition in early 1862. Within 12 months, Union […]

Confederates shoot a Maine deserter at Vicksburg

Not every Maine boy donning a Civil War uniform wore Union blue. More than a few wore Confederate gray or butternut, and the Johnny Rebs shot a particular Maine lad after he bolted for Union lines somewhere in the Mississippi River Valley in early summer 1863. Many Union newspapers picked up the story, brought north […]