Graves Matter is the free online newsletter dedicated to finding Atlantic Canadians who served during the Civil War. More than 2,400 New Brunswick-born men served in Maine units. (Courtesy Larry Burden)
Before each Memorial Day weekend, many volunteers (including Scouts) spread out across Maine cemeteries to place American flags on veterans’ graves. Afterwards, perceptive visitors notice the flags secured to the five-pointed metal stars marking specific graves. Based on the Grand Army of the Republic’s symbolic star, these stars identify the graves of Civil War veterans.
Despite the flag, these heroes are not all Americans: Many are Canadians who enlisted in the army or navy to help save the Union. The best way to meet these heroes is to subscribe to Graves Matter, the free online newsletter published by New Brunswick military historian and Civil War re-enactor Larry Burden.
Then a first lieutenant, Capt. Edwin Barlow Dow commanded the 6th Maine Battery at Gettysburg. He was born in Sheffield, New Brunswick. (Maine State Archives)
A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant living in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, he had long been interested in the Civil War before joining the New Brunswick-based Co. I, 20th Maine Infantry, some years ago. He also belongs to the Maine-based Co. B, 20th Maine.
Before Burden joined Co. I, its members (led by Terry Middleton) “began researching New Brunswick’s involvement in the Civil War.” They found many men and some women who fought for the North or the South. Middleton joined the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and both groups shared information.
“The research was a big reason for my joining [Co. I], so I asked if I could continue that work,” Burden said. “I was retired and have an extensive background in investigations and research.
“At the time Co. I had cataloged nearly 165 people, but Terry was doing this before the Internet exploded,” he pointed out. “I began with utilizing the names that the late genealogist Daniel F. Johns had compiled in his two-volume The American Civil War: The Service Records of Atlantic Canadians With the State of Maine Volunteers.
“We had the names of hundreds of men and their units, so I started tracking them down and, using a variety of sources on the Internet, built a massive database to catalog my findings,” Burden said.
During his research “I discovered many interesting facts and stories that I felt compelled to share with others,” he said. “So I created Graves Matter – The Search for Atlantic Canadians in the Civil War as a company [I] newsletter. Eventually others became interested in it, so I started sharing it with friends and encouraged them to pass it on to others.
“This is my sixth year of putting it out, and Terry’s brother, Troy, has joined in with the research and writing articles,” Burden said. “Presently we have over 200 people on the free distribution list that is circulated to readers across North America, Europe, and Australia.”
Each issue of Graves Matter features interesting, well-researched articles about individual Canadian soldiers or sailors, plus other features. The September issue, for example, featured a Tim MacKenzie article titled “George Sutherland of Pictou County, Nova Scotia.” Leaving relatives to run the family farm, Sutherland joined the 30th Massachusetts Infantry in February 1862. Surviving different battles, he married Mary Jane Mclean of Prince Edward Island in Lowell, Massachusetts in late March 1864.
Edwin Barlow Dow, whose name will be forever associated with the 6th Maine Battery, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. (Courtesy Larry Burden and Find A Grave)
Sutherland died as the 30th Massachusetts advanced at Third Winchester that September. He was buried in Lowell; Mary Jane, who never remarried and soon returned to PEI with the couple’s only child, was buried beside Sutherland after her death in 1909.
The September Graves Matter also featured “When the General Came to St. Andrews, New Brunswick,” an article examining the Fenian threat in Eastport and a corresponding visit to the Passamaquoddy region by George Gordon Meade. Company I member Troy Middleton contributed “Carte de Visite,” highlighting the photographs and brief biographies of eight Canadians who served in Maine units.
Among those Canadians is Capt. Edwin Barlow Dow, he of Dow’s 6th Maine Battery-fame at Gettysburg. He hailed from Sheffield, New Brunswick.
Besides doing research on line, Burden reads “a lot of books, when I can,” and “wherever I travel, I am always visiting graveyards, looking for Civil War gravestones.” Among his visits to many Maine cemeteries, he located Tom Chamberlain’s grave in the Castine Cemetery. Chamberlain was not a Canadian, but Castine retains strong historical ties with the British occupations during the American Revolution and War of 1812, and many loyalists living in Castine moved to the Maritimes after the Revolution.
People interested in receiving the free newsletter can sign up for it by emailing Burden at larryburden8@gmailcom. Back issues are available at Company I’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/20thmainecoi.
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If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to 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.
Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Civil War (released by Savas Beatie) chronicles the swift transition of Joshua L. Chamberlain from college professor and family man to regimental and brigade commander. 
Drawing on Chamberlain’s extensive memoirs and writings and multiple period sources, the book follows Chamberlain through the war while examining the determined warrior who let nothing prevent him from helping save the United States.
Order your autographed copy by contacting author Brian Swartz at visionsofmaine@tds.net
Passing Through the Fire is also available at savasbeatie.com or Amazon.
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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.
