Tag Archives: Maine

Young officer paid terrible price when 32nd Maine charged The Crater: Part 2

  When the Union mine dug beneath a Confederate fort atop Cemetery Hill at Petersburg failed to explode on schedule on July 30, 1864, 17-year-old 2nd Lt. James J. Chase of Turner fell asleep. “I was soon wrapped in slumber, forgetful of what was going on around me, when suddenly I was awakened” by the […]

17-year-old lieutenant waited for a Union mine to explode: Part 1

  The massive explosion that shook James J. Chase awake at Petersburg followed him home to Maine. Hailing from Turner, the 16-year-old Chase joined the war effort in August 1863. Showing talent and leadership capabilities, he received a commission and a transfer to the 32nd Maine Infantry in late winter 1864 as a second lieutenant […]

Spring gales almost sank the 2nd Maine Cav

Two terrifying ocean storms almost turned a Confederate dream into reality in early spring 1864: wiping out some 300 Maine cavalrymen before they ever fired a shot. In mid-March, troopers from three 2nd Maine Cavalry Regiment companies — A, B, and D — started loading their horses aboard two transports docked at Portland. Orders called […]

Three bold Confederates strolled into a Calais bank

Fidgeting with his revolver earned George Foster a dubious and obscure footnote in Civil War history. By summer 1864, Confederate agents based in Canada dreamed and schemed about carrying the war to the Union home front. Still a British possession, Canada was a neutral territory across which Confederate and Union spies and counterspies danced — […]

Re-enlisting in Texas could get a soldier home to Maine

Did some 15th Maine Infantry Regiment boys re-enlist just to escape the ennui of Texas garrison life — and perhaps to desert after receiving Army-sanctioned leaves back home in Maine? By capturing New Orleans in April 1862 and blockading other Gulf of Mexico ports, the Navy sharply reduced Confederate capabilities to move freight east of […]

State museum features “Maine Voices From the Civil War” exhibit

AUGUSTA — Daniel Marston and his 13-year-old son, Daniel W., marched off to war together with the 9th Maine Infantry Regiment on Sept. 22, 1861. Military duties separated father and son within a year, and Captain Daniel spent worrisome months and spread much ink across letters while trying to transfer Dannie from South Carolina to […]

Brave Hampden captain shed his life for his country

  Henry Crosby suffered that hot June day as his comrades attempted desperately to save his life. Today only an engraved name on the Civil War monument in Hampden’s Locust Grove Cemetery recalls the unsung hero who meant so much to his men 150 years ago this year. A single man when he mustered into […]

Prospect Civil War re-enactor dons a Zouave uniform

PROSPECT — Confederate soldiers watching an approaching Zouave charge did not always hang around to greet the Yankees clad in North African uniforms. And members of Richardson’s Civil War Round Table recently learned why when Civil War re-enactor Rob “Maynard” Kufrovich donned his Zouave uniform and brought his rifled musket and its bayonet to a […]

Hell comes to Rappahannock Station on a dark November night: Part I

Sensing the approaching threat in the deep November darkness, an alert Confederate soldier — probably a North Carolinian — fires his musket. Comrades swarm to their protective breastworks, level their muskets, and loosen a thunderous volley. Hideous screams suddenly erupt in the Virginia night; before the Confederates finish reloading, cold steel leaps through the swirling […]

Private Joseph French tweets the Civil War

Joseph French likes to tweet. He tweets the weather: “Fair and pleasant.” He tweets his official duty for this Sunday: “”We were inspected this morning by our inspecting officer at nine o’clock both camp and person.” And he tweets what he did next: “Then we went to church.” Routine tweets from French, who has mastered […]