Tag Archives: 15th Maine Infantry Regiment

The son of “Stuttering Pat”

Five Patrick Kelleys appeared before recruiting officers in Maine and enlisted in the army during the Civil War. Four likely exhibited an Irish brogue when speaking English. The fifth Patrick Kelley possibly spoke English with the developing Aroostook County dialect that added “r” to words lacking that letter (such as “Ka-tar-din”). Whatever his accent, this […]

An army recruiter on every corner

Much like patent-medicine hucksters peddling liquid healing, Army recruiters occupying just about every street corner in downtown Bangor in autumn 1861 promised potential recruits the sun, the moon, and the stars — and a $100 bounty to boot. Across Maine, recruiters scrambled that fall to raise men for an artillery battery, a cavalry regiment, and […]

Dear old Mom asked her son to spy on his brother-in-law

Reading the recurring requests penned in his mother’s familiar cursive writing, Edwin A. Lowe gulped. He clearly understood what Lucetta S. Parker sought: information about her third oldest son — and a particular son-in-law. Re-reading Lucetta’s questions marks, Lowe gulped again. This wasn’t going to be an easy letter to write home to dear old […]

Even a “Dear John” letter was welcome on Valentine’s Day 1864

  There were many moments in winter 1864 when a Maine doctor stationed on the Texas Gulf Coast would have welcomed a “Dear John” letter — or any printed material to disrupt the mind-numbing ennui affecting his morale. But a letter from home was the best morale-boosting elixir of all. In transferring from the 15th […]

Dexter surgeon sent his wife packing and broke her heart

  Given the opportunity to have his wife and young son join him on a Texas Gulf Coast island in late 1863, Dr. John Butler Wilson of Dexter shipped them home instead. He soon regretted his decision — and had he foreseen the future, Wilson would never have let his family out of his sight. […]