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 […]
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 […]
At 5:30 a.m. on Friday, June 27, 1862, Col. Nathaniel Jackson started the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment toward the fighting — at that moment only a large-scale shootout between opposing skirmishers — nears Gaines Mill east of Richmond. Jackson’s men marched with the 2nd Brigade led by Col. Joseph J. Bartlett. Fleshed out with […]
When I was young, we sometimes played “Quaker meeting has begun, no more laughing, no more fun.” Participants turned stone-faced and silent; the first one to crack a smile or laugh lost the game, which took its name from the stillness that Quakers allegedly practiced during their meetings. The tough 5th Maine Infantry boys played […]
Some Maine soldiers did not know when to quit, and that attitude led them to spend some five years in a Union uniform during — and after — the Civil War. Of the 32 infantry regiments (not counting the 1st Veteran Volunteers formed in Virginia) that Maine sent to war, three were directly related in […]
Shoulder-strap desire met gubernatorial reality on Monday, Sept. 9, 1861 at the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment camp near Washington, D.C. — and the “shoulder straps” led the subsequent mutiny. Known as the “Forest City Regiment,” the 5th Maine mustered into federal service at Portland (the “Forest City”) on Monday, June 24, 1861. Exactly a month […]
