Tag Archives: 5th Maine Infantry Regiment

Maine soldiers watch the army disintegrate in winter 1863, part 2

The arrival of Joe Hooker at Army of the Potomac headquarters in late January 1863 stirred interest, trepidation, and many questions. Within weeks he instituted morale-building improvements that restored the army’s elan. “Never was the magic influence of a single man more clearly shown than when Hooker assumed command,” said Capt. Charles P. Mattocks, 17th […]

Maine soldiers watch the army disintegrate in winter 1863, part 1

Despite all the immorality-related baggage (drinking, carousing with prostitutes, etc.) historically associated with him, Joseph Hooker helped save the Union in winter 1863. In the regimental camps sprinkled across Stafford County opposite Fredericksburg, morale all but collapsed that midwinter. Ambrose Burnside had ordered the Army of the Potomac to outflank the Confederates dug in at […]

Heat and rain plagued the 5th Maine Infantry’s march to Gettysburg

At Chancellorsville the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment had fought with the 2nd Brigade (Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Bartlett), 1st Division (Brig. Gen. William T. H. Brooks), VI Corps (Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick). Led by Col. Clark S. Edwards, the 5th Maine had taken and administered drubbings at Salem Church and had escaped along with VI […]

A Gettysburg mystery

Among the Mainers killed at Gettysburg exists a mystery: John C. Wadsworth of Cornish. His Masonic brothers held a funeral for their brother slain on the field of valor, and everyone in Cornish believed he died at Gettysburg. Yet … When he enlisted in the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment on August 5, 1862, Wadsworth was […]

Christmas 1862: awaiting a brother’s fate at Fredericksburg

Her stomach probably tied in a knot, sometime on Sunday, Dec. 21, 1863 a sister of Samuel Franklyn Parcher sat at a desk while writing her brother. Blood-soaked Fredericksburg was eight days past, and Maine newspapers had already published casualty lists. The sister (either Eliza or Mary) worried deep in her heart about “Frank,” whose […]

D-Day on the Rappahannock

Civil War buffs remember Chancellorsville as Stonewall Jackson outflanking ol’ Oliver Otis Howard and the Confederates then thumping Joe Hooker, so intent on losing the battle that he did not bother to properly fight it. All the action took place out around Hazel Grove and the Chancellor House, or so the story goes. But heavy […]

The 5th Maine boys tramped into a leaden hail

Heroes tramped into a leaden hail at Gaines Mill, Va. on Friday, June 27, 1862. From chapter 34 in my new book, Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, comes this adapted story involving the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. Nathaniel Jackson. When George McClellan decided to flee the Peninsula (the man […]

Maine musician watches the Army kill a deserter

A Portland soldier could not wait to share the gory details he saw while witnessing the first execution of a Union soldier during the Civil War. On Dec. 14, 1861, Pvt. Samuel Franklyn Parcher — he went by “Franklyn” or “Frank” — wrote a letter to his friend James O. Parsons, with whose family Parcher […]

So you think you know Maine at Gettysburg, part 2

Here’s Part 2 of the Maine Monument Minutiae quiz involving Pine Tree State monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park. The answers are printed below. 1. Two Union generals lurk around the 2nd Maine Battery’s main monument on the Chambersburg Road. Who are those generals? 2. A small monument honoring a wounded Union general rises on […]

Gaines Mill: Part IV — “It was more than flesh and blood could resist”

As the battered Union right flank started to crumble at Gaines Mill around 5 p.m., Friday, June 27, 1862, Brig. Gen. Henry W. Slocum had poured in all his reserves … … including the 2nd Brigade commanded by Col. Joseph J. Bartlett. A brave man who rode his horse amidst the flying Confederate lead, Bartlett […]