Tag Archives: Harris M. Plaisted

A legal beagle recruits for the wrong regiment

Did a Bangor attorney recruit a company for the wrong regiment? In late summer 1861 Gen. Benjamin F. Butler convinced President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton that they needed more pro-war Democrats commanding volunteer regiments. Loyal state governors (mostly Republicans after the 1860 election) overwhelmingly commissioned Republican officers, and War Democrats needed […]