North Yarmouth Academy alumni fought during the Civil War

The American flag flies over the North Yarmouth Academy campus in June 2019. Founded in 1814, the school later graduated many students who fought for the North; a few fought for the South. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Depending on the town, Maine schools operated “hit or miss” prior to the Civil War. Students might learn the “three R’s: reading, riting, and rithmetic,” but not much more, particularly in rural areas where mud season, spring planting, and fall harvest restricted students’ educational availability to the winter months.

Some opportunities existed for higher learning. Across Maine existed private academies where students could “finish” their studies prior to attending college (often at Bowdoin). One such school was North Yarmouth Academy, established in 1814 in North Yarmouth.

Now a college-preparatory school enrolling students ranging in age from toddlers to high school, NYA physically stands today at 148 Main St., Yarmouth. There’s a reason why NYA “relocated” to Yarmouth.

Incorporated as North Yarmouth in 1680, the town was the eighth town incorporated in the District of Maine by the Massachusetts General Court. Like many colonial-era Maine towns, North Yarmouth boasted more square mileage than today — and like other towns did, spun off other towns.

In North Yarmouth’s case, Freeport (1789), Pownal (1808), Cumberland (1821), and Yarmouth (1849) split from the original town and went their collective ways.

With Yarmouth went North Yarmouth Academy, and its trustees saw no reason to change its name. A similar situation happened with Foxcroft Academy, founded in 1823 in Foxcroft in Piscataquis County. Foxcroft shared a long border with next-door Dover, but when the towns merged as Dover-Foxcroft on March 1, 1922, Foxcroft Academy retained its name.

In the 1840s and 1850s, North Yarmouth Academy educated many male students who would later fight in the Civil War. Despite the warnings provided by the atrocities committed in Bleeding Kansas from 1854 onward, few Mainers predicted a future civil war, and NYA graduates pursued their lives.

For example, Leeds native Oliver Otis Howard attended West Point and joined the army. Attending NYA from his native Castine, Charles Tilden ultimately joined his father’s business there.

By 1861, some NYA graduates had moved away, but no matter where they lived, alumni joined the war effort, mostly in Union units, a few in Confederate units. The loyal graduates served primarily in Maine batteries and regiments; others joined units in the states where they lived, and some NYA lads joined the regular Army or the Navy.

Many NYA alums (especially the college-educated) became officers; others were enlisted men. Some rose to national or Maine prominence. Howard saw his XI Corps thrashed by “Stonewall” Jackson at Chancellorsville and that same corps torn up again while gallantly holding the north side of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

But Howard with west and rose to army command under William Tecumseh Sherman.

Tilden led the 16th Maine Infantry to glory at Fredericksburg and to its Gotterdammerung at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

Benjamin Brown French, a North Yarmouth Academy graduate from New Hampshire, knew President Abraham Lincoln and constructed the platform from which Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in November 1863. French oversaw Lincoln’s funeral in Washington, D.C. in April 1865. He also laid the cornerstone for the Washington Monument. (Public Domain)

Hailing from New Hampshire, NYA graduate Benjamin Brown French later moved to Washington, D.C. and served as the House of Representatives clerk and as commissioner of public buildings. In March 1861 he served as president of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural ball.

According to John A. Robbins Jr., NYA’s volunteer archivist and historian, French “erected the (12-by-20-foot] stage used at the dedication” of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Historian Sandra Merville Hart described French as the “assistant” marshal-in-chief for the historic event; when his boss was not present “to begin the ceremony,” French signaled “Birgfield’s Band,” which launched into “‘Homage d’un Heroes,’ a funeral dirge.”

After Edward Everett spoke, the Maryland Musical Association sang a Benjamin French-written song titled “Consecration Hymn.” Lincoln then stood to speak.

French oversaw the president’s Washington, D.C. funeral in April 1865.

North Yarmouth Academy’s published roll of honor lists by specific wars “Those Who Were Killed In Action Or Died From Their Wounds.” Ten graduates died in military service during the Civil War. Among those lost while serving the Union were:

  • William Appleton Webb, colonel of the 42nd Illinois Infantry when typhoid fever killed him in Missouri on Christmas Eve, 1861.
  • William S. McClanning, a 1st Maine Cavalry private who died at Deep Bottom, Va. on July 1, 1862;
  • William Lewis Haskell, captain of Co. B, 7th Maine Infantry. Shot through both knees during the battle of Antietam, he died at Chambersburg, Penn. on Oct. 17, 1862.
  • Willard Morse Jenkins, first lieutenant in Co. B, 17th Maine Infantry, hailed from Chatham, N.H. and graduated from NYA in 1858. He died at Edwards Ferry, Md. (on the Potomac River) on Nov. 10, 1862. The date indicates he likely died of disease, not from combat.
  • Charles Sullivan McCobb Jr. came from Boothbay and graduated from NYA in 1856. A second lieutenant in Co. E, 4th Maine Infantry, he was killed during the regiment’s swirling defense of Devil’s Den at Gettysburg in late afternoon, July 2, 1863.
  • An 1848 NYA graduate, Wentworth Ricker Richardson hailed from Otisfield and joined the Navy as an assistant surgeon. While caring for officers suffering from yellow fever at Key West, he died from that disease on July 20, 1864.
  • Gustavus Grant, an 1860 NYA graduate from Yarmouth, was captured while serving with the 1st Maine Cavalry. He died in prison in July 1864.
  • From Yarmouth, Abraham Newell Rowe graduated from NYA in 1856 and served as first lieutenant in Co. E, 30th Maine Infantry. He died at Winchester, Va. on Nov. 21, 1864.
  • George H. Pendleton (NYA, ’52) had barely joined the Navy as an acting master in 1861 when Confederates captured him. Imprisoned until 1865, he died in 1866, likely from health problems that arose during his captivity.

One NYA graduate died while fighting for the South. A Limington resident, Arthur McArthur Jr. roomed with Oliver Otis Howard before graduating from NYA in 1846. He moved to Louisiana — many Mainers headed south prior to the war — long before joining the 6th Louisiana Infantry, which mustered on June 4, 1861. The regiment soon transferred to Virginia and in May 1862 joined the Army of the Valley, commanded by Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.

A Yankee shot and killed Maj. McArthur as the 6th Louisiana charged at First Winchester on May 25, 1862.

His brother, William M. McCarthur, joined the 8th Maine Infantry as a captain and rose to colonel before mustering out in mid-January 1866.

Sources: History of Cumberland 1821-1948, Greeley Institute: Class of 1948, “North Yarmouth,” p. 7; John A. Robbins Jr., NYA’s volunteer archivist and historian; Sandra Merville Hart, Dedication of National Cemetery Where Lincoln Gives Gettysburg Address, https://sandramervillehart.wordpress.com/tag/gettysburg-national-cemetery-dedication-ceremony/   


If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to like Maine at War on Facebook and get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. —————————————————————————————————————–

Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.