One hundred forty seven years ago this week, President Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg and delivered a brief address to dedicate the National Soldiers’ Cemetery there.
That day — Nov. 19 — has since become known as Dedication Day, a day of remembrance of the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg over three days in July 1863.
It’s also a day in which we remember Lincoln’s famous and forceful reminder to a nation embroiled in a civil war that the United States, “under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Maine sent more troops per capita than any other New England state, and suffered the highest percent of casualties of any state in the Union during the five-year Civil War. And, Maine played a pivotal role in the Union victory at Gettysburg, a victory that is widely believed to have swayed the result of the war.
While Bowdoin’s Joshua Chamberlain and his 20th Infantry are the most famous of the Maine troops at Gettysburg, they were not the only Mainers there, fighting to preserve these united states.
Thanks to a tremendous effort by the Secretary of State’s Office, a collection of the personal tales of Mainers who marched off to war is now available online at: http://maine.gov/sos/arc/sesquicent/civilwarwk.shtml.
The project was launched to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s election as president, an election that agitated this country into civil war. Noah Smith was Secretary of State at the time, and his writing of Lincoln’s win, and the win of his running mate, Maine’s Hannibal Hamlin, is part of the Civil War online collection.
There is also the story of Lewiston carpenter John French who, at 21 years, wrote to his father, “I have enlisted and when you get this letter I shall probably be in Fort Preble at Portland. Think not that this is a hasty step, for it is not so. I did not act in a moment of excitement but considered it calmly.”
French, who served in the 5th Maine, died two years later at Rappahannock Station in Virginia.
In 1861, Benjamin Bates advertised for 120 children “to help in manufacturing tent cloth” at his Lewiston mill, using cotton he had stockpiled before the war started.
In March 1862, Freeman Gurney of Leeds wrote home about his troubles learning to ride with the 1st Maine Cavalry — having little experience with horses.
In August that year, Thomas Crowell of Lisbon, a private in the 11th Infantry having recuperated from an extended illness, wrote to Gov. Israel Washburn seeking the location of his unit so he might return. He never did re-join the 11th, and was eventually dropped from its rolls after being declared a deserter.
At the start of the battle at Gettysburg in 1863, Arch Leavitt, a 23-year-old teacher from Turner, lay ill in a Washington hospital and discharged himself so he could re-join the 16th Maine in Pennsylvania, but arrived after the battle had ended. Instead, he found himself the senior officer of his regiment, in command of reorganizing 69 survivors of the 16th Infantry.
Leavitt died in 1864 from wounds he received at the Battle of Laurel Hill in West Virginia.
We can also get a glimpse of the personal lives of some of the people serving in the war, including Josiah Pulsifer of Auburn — then the Army’s paymaster stationed in Norfolk, Va. — who wrote to his wife in 1864 about the tedium of his duties and of his heartfelt desire to see her.
Each of the entries in the Secretary of State Civil War project is specific to a person, but the issues address “everything from health care, race relations, gender equity, intergovernmental relations, taxation policy and, of course, the military,” according to State Archivist David Cheever.
We urge you to take a look and learn about some of the Mainers who fought to hold this nation together. It’s a fascinating peek back at a tumultuous time in our history.
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