Ellsworth rolled out the red carpet when the 6th Maine Infantry’s elderly survivors converged on the Hancock County shiretown 50 years after going forth to defend the Union. When the 2nd Maine Infantry Regiment left Bangor for Washington, D.C. by train on May 14, 1861, five unattached companies remained at Camp Washburn. These companies were […]
In far Down East Maine, well-preserved earthworks recall when people feared that a Confederate sea raider — perhaps the notorious CSS Alabama or CSS Florida — might steam up the muddily mercurial Machias River and attack Machias, a lumber port and the Washington County shiretown. Constructed in Machiasport (the town separating Machias from the open […]
Voter fraud occurred in Marshfield in late summer 1863, but town officials quickly got wise to the voting irregularity — and it was not attributed to Russian interference. Only 17.54 square miles in size, Marshfield lies in central coastal Washington County, with Machias blocking immediate access to salt water to the south. Winding through Marshfield, […]
Sherman’s “March to the Sea” epitomizes the concept of “living off the land” in hostile territory, but soldiers like Calif Newton Drew of Machias were cleaning out Confederate larders long before Sherman’s bummers swaggered out of Atlanta. Hailing from Machias and Whitneyville, Drew was 15 when he joined Co. K, 6th Maine Infantry Regiment […]
