Sumter’s 9/11 aftermath: A shell explodes in central Maine

The Confederate Stars and Bars flying atop the flagpole indicates that this drawing of Fort Sumter was made after the Union post fell on April 13, 1861. Pounded into ruins by Union bombardments later in the war, Fort Sumter originally was three stories tall. (Library of Congress)

Few Confederates shelling Fort Sumter into submission probably thought about the war that their idiocy had started. As with Pearl Harbor and 9/11, there quickly came a military response to an attack on Americans and American property.

When the rebels fired on Fort Sumter, their shells traveled remarkable distances; one flew north and exploded under me,” said Abner R. Small. “I landed in the ranks of the 3d Maine” Infantry Regiment.

Standing only 5-4¾, the 25-year-old Small had hazel eyes, brown hair, and a dark complexion. Born in Pittston, he lived in West Waterville (modern Oakland) in spring 1861 and worked as a clerk. Small was single.

Companies G and H “were recruited at Waterville, a city of lovely elms, a college, and a good deal of profitable industry and patriotism,” Small said. On “the first possible day,” he and Henry Fairbanks “went from the West Village together, and signed the [recruiting] papers in the office of Joshua Nye.”

Small and Fairbanks enlisted in Co. G, 3rd Maine, on April 26, 1861. Also single, the 22-year-old Fairbanks stood 5-5 and had light hazel eyes, light hair, and a sandy complexion. He worked as a “scythe plater” and apparently played a brass instrument, for he wound up in the regimental band.

Originally enlisting as an eighth corporal in the 3rd Maine Infantry Regiment, Abner R. Small of West Waterville was a captain in the 16th Maine when he had his photo taken. (Maine State Archives)

Small and Fairbanks knew what they were doing. “Our minds were made up,” Small recalled. “We needed no persuading; and I am sure it was the same with our comrades from the little town: George Benson left his anvil, Jim Ricker his plow, Frank Pullen his school books, Will Wyman his paint pot hanging to the ladder.”

These patriots showed up “one morning, in obedience to orders” to form “in line on Elm Street,” outside “the Hanscom Block,” Small recalled. After bawling ‘“Eyes—right!”’ and ‘ “Mark time!”, Capt. Frank S. Hesseltine of Waterville “shouted, ‘Right—face! Forwa-a-a-a-a-rd—march!’”

In that era, company lines formed with the tallest soldier on the right and men aligned in descending height. Small immediately noticed the disparity, “Between six-foot Bill Copp, away up at the right of the line, and away down at the tail end myself, barely five feet four and a half, there was a ridiculous contrast,” he observed.

Hesseltine started the line moving. “The long file ahead of me rose and fell, bobbing like a string of corks in rough water,” Small commented. Then men shifted “to quick time,” which “at the head of the file became double quick at the rear, and a run for me.

Hesseltine maneuvered Co. G into “Hathaway’s … shirt factory,” associated with Waterville well into the 20th century, although Small could not foresee the company’s longevity.

We were making, by invitation, a raid on the products” manufactured at Hathaway, in this case the gray “woolen shirt” presented “each member of the two companies,” Small said.

He and Frank Haskell entered Hathaway’s late and left without free shirts. Hesseltine formed Co. G and noticed the duo made “conspicuous by our lack of grey shirts,” Small commented. Hathaway, the shirtmaker, “handed over to Frank and me the only two shirts that had failed to fit” other Co. G lads.

There was no man big enough to fill them out,” Small said.

He and Haskell looked “fantastic in those shirts” and knew why “our comrades laughed at us” and “the town dudes quizzed us, and the college boys all smiled their peculiar smile.”

A Co. G bully, Sgt. Charles W. Lowe, “never lost a chance to remind me of my subordinate position and inches,” Small muttered. He “advised me to ‘have my best girl take a tuck in the flaps” of the shirt, and “I hated him for saying that.”

However, “Hathaway’s grey shirts, except in size, were uniform. We thought we were beginning to be soldiers,” Small said.

Ironically, he had enlisted as a private, but Hesseltine “offered me a corporal’s warrant,” which “I ay first spurned,” Small recalled. “It seemed an affront.”

He told Haskell “that I had decided to refuse the honor.

“‘Smalley,’ he said, ‘don’t be a fool. Take it, and creep up!’”

So Small became Co. G’s eighth corporal, and Hesseltine quickly promoted Small to sergeant, the only rank indicated on his 3rd Maine soldier’s file at the Maine State Archives. He and just about all of Co. G mustered on June 4 (five men mustered on June 27).

Sources: Harold Adams Small, ed., The Road to Richmond: The Civil War Letters of Major Abner R. Small of the 16th Maine Volunteers, Fordham University Press, New York, 2000, pp. 4-6; Abner R. Small Soldier’s File, Maine State Archives; Henry Fairbanks Soldier’s File, MSA


“Swartz delves into the personal stories of sacrifice and loss…” — Civil War News

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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.