Tag Archives: Rockland

Thanks a Sock

A physician’s wife knew not whose toes her socks would cover in winter 1863, at least not until a letter arrived from a grateful 4th Maine Infantry officer. Mary J. Germain, married to Dr. Charles N. Germain of Rockland, knit some socks — “stockings” was the correct term — that winter. She probably knit the […]

Firefighters’ Last Call

During their “regular monthly meeting” held in Rockland on Monday, October 5, 1863, firefighters from Dirigo Engine Co. No. 3 honored three fallen comrades with a mid-19th century version of “Last Call.” Rockland was wicked young then, formerly East Thomaston and incorporated as a town only in 1848 and as a city only in 1854. […]

July 3 ceremony rededicates 4th Maine monument in Rockland

ROCKLAND — Approximately 100 people gathered at Winslow-Holbook-Merritt American Legion Post No. 1 on Limerock Street on Monday, July 3 to rededicate the monument consecrated to the 4th Maine Infantry Regiment in 1932. With the sun shining that gorgeous evening, a steady southwesterly breeze stirred the flags and swept away the bugs. Directed by Marlene […]

Young Rockland soldier saves the flag at the Devil’s Den: Part II

Screaming the famous “Rebel yell,” thousands of Confederates rolled east toward Houck’s Ridge and the Devil’s Den at Gettysburg around 4 p.m., Thursday, July 2, 1863. They rolled back a skirmish line comprising the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters and marksmen from the 4th Maine Infantry. The fighting surged toward Devil’s Den and the valley (soon to […]

Mutineers could drive an officer crazy

Deserters were not the only man-made plague that drove Maine officers crazy during the Civil War; independent-minded Maine soldiers might mutiny, too, if they so decided. Patriotic fervor swept the Midcoast in mid-April 1861. A business partner with Hiram Berry, Elijah Walker sold coal and lumber in Rockland, recently split from Thomaston and designated the […]

If only Andrew Bean’s trunk could talk

  Sometimes we can almost reach across history and “touch” a Civil War veteran. At least with Andrew Derby Bean from Brooks, we can touch the trunk that he took to war in spring 1861, and if only that trunk could talk, If only the trunk owned by Andrew Derby Bean could talk, the war […]