A surprised Joshua L. Chamberlain received a unique present before departing for war with the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment. Several “energetic friends” (identified by the Brunswick Telegraph as W. R. Field, S. R. Jackson, “and a few others”) purchased “a splendid dapple gray horse and trappings [saddle, bit, reins, etc.] to match.” Its previous owner, […]
Moses Davis rubs shoulders with Joseph Simpson, a comrade these past 160 years. They probably knew each other way back when; if not, they have certainly had time to introduce themselves. Joe’s from Waterville, by the way. Moses has probably made acquaintances with his other next-door neighbor, Samuel C. Brookings, a youngster from Pittston. He […]
Three white, albeit slightly weathered veterans’ headstones stand side by side by side in Hope Grove Cemetery, located on the Hatchet Mountain Road (Route 235) not far from Hope Village (the built-up area around the intersection of routes 105 and 235). These headstones belong to the Wentworth brothers. Two of them got here before the […]
While camped near Sutherland Station on the Southside Railroad in late April 1865, soldiers from the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment got into what became a bloody fracas with black cavalrymen and their white officers. Read part 1 here. The sutler selling food and other items to a black cavalry regiment from Massachusetts set up his […]
Did latent racism and a need to blow off steam trigger a 20th Maine mini-riot two weeks past Robert E. Lee’s surrender? Whether “yes” or “no,” the incident drew blood and cost the army several expensive horses. Let me set the stage and introduce certain characters. Commissioned a colonel on March 13, 1865, Ellis Spear […]
Carrying a full pack, one Maine-based Civil War re-enactor participating in this year’s Remembrance Day parade at Gettysburg ventured forth on “my new knees” replaced last year. Not knowing how well they would handle the long march to the Gettysburg National Cemetery, he went forth proudly representing Maine heroes who had fought at Gettysburg 159 […]
Larry Burden lives in historic and scenic St. Andrews, New Brunswick, located across Passamaquoddy Bay from Robbinston. He’s a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant with a passionate interest in history and the Civil War — and he portrays an enlisted soldier in Co. I, 20th Maine Infantry Regiment. Company I’s members are all Canadians […]
A few days before Ulysses S. Grant launched his multi-front assaults against Southern armies in spring 1864, a 20th Maine Infantry private thought about eternity and what the approaching Virginia campaign could bring. Then he composed a last letter home — and included with it a last prayer. Born to William and Eliza Parsons in […]
Of the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment’s three original field officers, Lt. Col. Charles D. Gilmore developed the habit of turning sick when battle loomed on the horizon — or so Capt. (and later major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel) Ellis Spear believed. Looking back to the Chancellorsville campaign, when Col. Adelbert Ames got his coveted staff […]
Historians will tell you that a bad apple served too long as the 20th Maine Infantry’s quartermaster, but looking back after the war, Bvt. Brig. Gen. Ellis Spear — the left-flank commander on Little Round Top — remembered a particular officer as, to play with a 1988 movie title, a “Dirty Rotten Skulker.” A Warren […]
