USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 38
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Mar. 14th. Started from Camp Banks this morning at 4 o'clock, took the road through Baton Rouge city, was passed by Gen. Banks and Augur and Staff. The day is very pleasant. The road leads through a Forest. We encamped by the House of a Rebel. The boys went in for plundering but was stopped by the General.
Sunday, Mar. 15th. Fell back this morning 5 miles as a Reserve. We heard heavy firing last night by our troops on Port Hudson. This morn- ing a Rebel Fire Raft exploded in the River below Port Hudson. Do not know what damage was done. The Fire Raft proved to be the Mis- sissippi, which was run ashore by the Pilot.
Mar. 16th. Found myself laying in 6 inches of water. We had a fine shower last night. I crawled out and dried my clothes and felt some bet- ter. We are waiting here for further orders. We saw a dead Rebel to-day. He was shot by our Pickets who were guarding a Pontoon Bridge. Our Fleet went past Port Hudson the 14th. Steamer Mississippi blew up Sun- day at 4 o'clock in the morning.
Mar. 19th. Nothing to-day except an order for two days cooked ra- tions. The day is very pleasant. Strawberries are beginning to ripen. Snakes are very plenty, one of our boys killed a Rattle Snake to-day. We have plenty of fresh beef. They kill wherever they find hogs and cows just as they want them. 9.00 o'clock P.M. had an order to march.
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Sunday, March 22nd. Nothing to-day but work. There is no Sun- day in the army. ... George Cole died in Hospital the 19th and was buried the 20th of March. We have 20 men in Hospital.
March 25th. Start out this morning with two men to dig a grave for Lowell Benner. He died last night about 4 o'clock P.M. 6 o'clock P.M. buried Lowell Benner at 4 o'clock. The procession consisted of a Cor- poral and six men. They fired a salute over his grave.
March 26th. Went with the sick to the Hospital. They were exam- ined by Dr. Brackett. This morning had battallion drill - something un- usual. We have lost 50 men out of our Regt. Gen. Grovers Division left to-day for Fort Donellson. They brought in a Rebel prisoner last week. He states that we might have took Port Hudson the 15th of March as well as not.
Sunday, March 29th. Had a very heavy shower last night, much Thunder and the sky in a perfect blaze all the time. . . . There has been 50 men died out of our Regt. up to this date, most of them with the Dysentary and Fevers.
Sunday, April 19th. Came off Guard this morning. There were great fears of an attack by the Rebel Cavalry, expected them to come every minute. The troops in Camp laid on their arms, but all passed off well. I got a sound Ducking during the Shower.
April 21st. Came off Guard this morning. We had a fine time and all quiet. The Report is that the Rebels have left Port Hudson. Lieut. Hall of Company I died to-day with the fever. The fevers are very fatal in this part of the country. We have ripe cherries here now.
April 22nd. Went to the funeral of one of the non-commissioned officers in our company. O. Sidelinger died this morning at 41/2 o'clock. The Chaplain of the 48th Mass. attended the funeral. Lieut Hall of Co. I buried to-day. They were both buried near the Fortifications.
April 25th. Day pleasant. Went out to the Negro House, occupied by 2 old Women and 2 Creole girls. The girls were very bright and not very dark. Their names were Louise and Estelle Pierce. They were free by nature and did not associate with common negros.
Sunday, May 3rd. Nothing but usual duties today. The great Cav- alry Raid of the Illinois Cavalry entered this city. They dashed through 700 miles of the enemy country in 16 days. They destroyed a great deal of property and took 150 prisoners with the loss of six men killed and wounded.
May 8th. Went to the Hospital again but the Doctor said I had the jaunders but did not need anything to take for them. Such is the kind of Doctors we have in the 21st Maine Regt. I am going to Doctor myself.
May 9th. I went to the city this morning and got some medicine. Heavy firing at Port Hudson last night. They were bombarding the Fort. Have heard no account about it. ..
May 11th. Dudley's Brigade left to-day for Port Hudson. They left in good spirits. Our Brigade has marching orders with two days cooked rations. I am some better to-day but very weak - do not think I shall be able to march.
May 13th. Quite pleasant to-day, but some signs of storm .... Levi Creamer died to-day at 4 o'clock P.M. and was buried at 6 o'clock P.M. He makes the 87th man that we have lost in this Regiment.
May 18th. I feel no better to-day than did yesterday. The Doctor says I am going to have a Billous Fever, but I will keep up good courage. 48th Mass. Regt. left to-day for Port Hudson with a Battery. The troops are all moving up the river.
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May 19th. I think I feel some better to-day, but the rest of the Bri- gade is ordered to go to Port Hudson, and I do not feel well about be- ing left behind, but I am not fit to go and must stay where I am.
May 23rd. Started to-day for Port Hudson with 2 Sergts. and 2 Privates. Hired a Negro to haul us up with a team. Had a pleasant time going. Joined my Regt. which was encamped on the old Battle ground 4 miles from Port Hudson.
May 25th. 51/2 A.M. Rose and packed my things and partook of Breakfast of Hard Tack, raw pork and muddy water. At 5 o'clock P.M. the Rebels commenced throwing shells on our right wing. They tried to break through our lines. Our Regt was ordered to support a battery and encamped in a cornfield behind it.
May 27th. Taken sick yesterday, not well to-day. The Battle com- menced in good earnest by shelling the Fort. This continued until 21/2 P.M. Then the order was given to take it by storm. The Balls flew thick and fast about our heads. The action lasted from 3 to 4 hours. We did not succeed in taking the place that way.
May 28th. All quiet to-day. The men are engaged in bringing off the dead and wounded. I am very sick and have a fever. The loss in our Regt. is between 70 and 80 killed, wounded and missing.
May 29th. Capt. came in from Pickett this morn. Got the Surgeon and had me sent to Baton Rouge. Started about 2 o'clock A.M. in an open team for Springfield Landing, a distance of 9 Miles. Then took the boat and arrived at 4 P.M.
Sunday, June 14th. Heavy firing at Port Hudson last night and also this morning. We still hear heavy guns in that direction. I expect they must be having a hard fight. I hope they will succeed in destroying the divilish hole soon.
June 16th. Our Regt lost in the fight of Sunday 1 man killed and 25 wounded. The most of our Regt. was under Col. Johnson and Major Merry as skirmishers. Col. Stanley led the storming party.
June 20th. All quiet to-day. We do not have anything for excite- ment here in this place except rumors of an attack by the Rebels. They will not try to come in here, for our gunboats are ready to burn the city if they do.
June 23rd. All quiet to-day. The Rebels have retook a place some distance down the river. They are prowling around like a pack of wolves, and when they get a chance to capture a place and destroy anything, they do it, if they do not hold it more than a day.
June 26th. No news to-day from up river. The Rebels are getting up bands of Gurillas who prowl about ready to take one of our men if he goes outside the Picket lines. They are a cowardly set and act the part of the Indian hidden behind a tree.
Sunday, June 28th. We are having meeting to-day. We can go to a Negro meeting which is quite interesting. They shout like the Metho- dists only louder, and jump up and down, and shake hands at the end of the meeting. The people are mostly Catholics in this place.
Tues. June 30th. Henry J. Mink died to-day in Hospital. He died very suddenly, supposed to be some heart disease. The Negroes say, who dig the graves, that they do not bury less than five per day.
July 7th. Do not feel any better. The day is very hot. The Provo Marshall had a dispatch from Gen. Banks that Vicksburg was taken the 4th of July with 25,000 men. There is also a report that Port Hudson surrendered to-day at 10 o'clock.
July 8th. Port Hudson taken to-day with 2500 men. They sur- rendered at 10 o'clock A.M. They were in a starving condition, and were
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destitute in many ways. The news was received here by Unionists with joy, but on the other side the reverse.
July 9th. All is life on the river from Baton Rouge to Port Hudson. The boats are passing up and down the river transporting troops to dif- ferent places to drive out the Rebel Gangs that have collected on the river below this place.
July 18th. Slept last night in a Store House on a bed of board 8 inches wide and was sorely annoyed by Musquitos. Had some hard bread and Butter and tea for breakfast. Port Hudson is a very busy place now. Boats are thronging the Landing from Vicksburg bringing cattle and from New Orleans & Baton Rouge with troops.
July 25th. Laurell Hill started from Port Hudson this morning at 6 o'clock and we started for Home. Very pleasant day, the shores of Port Hudson fading in the distance. Passed Bayou S - at 11 o'clock.
Pass the Red River at 2 P.M. Arrived at Natchez at 10 o'clock.
The interim entries furnish details of the trip home - up the river to Cairo and by train from Toledo, through Erie, Roches- ter, Utica, Albany, and Springfield to Boston.
Friday, Aug. 7th. Stopped at the Wildes Hotel last night. Took Breakfast and hair cut and shaved. Started from Depot 91/2, And at Lynn at 12.00, at Beverly 11/4, at Ipswich at 2.00 P.M., at Hampton at 21/2 at Portsmouth 31/2, S. Berwick 43/4, at N. Berwick at 5.00, Biddeford 6.00, Portland 71/4, at Augusta 12.00, and Home at last.10
From these scenes and observations on the life of a Waldo- boro enlisted man in the field during the Civil War we return to conditions in the town.
The state elections during the war years afford, perhaps, the best clue to the basic attitudes of Waldoboro citizens, and may be construed as a fair index of their fundamental loyalty or disloyalty, since they gave to each citizen the opportunity to give expression anonymously to his convictions. In the gubernatorial election of 1862 the issue was again clearly drawn. The Jameson, or War Democrats, called a "Peoples' Convention," and again nominated Colonel Jameson, of the 2nd Maine Regiment, on the principle that "it is the first duty of the citizen in this perilous national crisis, to yield a ready and unwavering support to the Government in all necessary efforts to subdue the existing re- bellion."
The "Compromise Democrats," who had nominated Dana the year before, held their convention in August and nominated Bion Bradbury as their candidate for governor. The leaders of this wing of the Democratic Party were the same men who had de- nounced the Government in the state campaign of 1861. This time their language was not quite so frank, but their basic aims were still the same. They declared that "the Union was formed in a
16Diary of Sergt. William H. P. Wyman, in possession of his daughter, Irene Wyman Butler, Waldoboro, Me.
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spirit of concession and compromise, and must be preserved by the same means and not by military force alone." The Republican call to convene was for an election of delegates, not only of Re- publicans, but all supporters of the national and state administra- tions, and the party platform invited "a cordial and patriotic union of the people of Maine on the patriotic basis of a generous sup- port of the policy and principles ... of Abraham Lincoln."
The issue thus offered by the three candidates was clear, and Waldoboro was in a position to register its real convictions. It did not speak in terms of the heavy voting prewar years, but its voice was unmistakable. Bradbury, the proponent of compromise, polled 375 votes; Jameson, the Democrat favoring prosecution of the war, polled fifty-three votes, and the Republican, Coburn, polled ninety-five votes. In other words, Bradbury, who most closely approached the Copperhead view, received in the town a majority of 247 votes, which was approximately a three to one majority. At this time the town had upwards of 200 men in the war. In this election the vote on a few local candidates for state offices is most illuminating. Isaac Reed (Democrat), running for the State Senate, received 501 votes and his Republican opponent, General Ken- nedy, received two votes; Augustus Welt (Democrat), running for the Legislature, received 435 votes, and his Republican oppon- ent, Joseph Bornheimer, ninety-eight votes. Most certainly the old machine was in running order, and registered either its own convictions or those of its leaders. In the state Coburn (Repub- lican) led Bradbury (Democrat) by less than 11,000 votes, and Jameson, the War Democrat, polled a total of 6764 votes. The discrepancy between the town and state vote clearly reveals how far out of line the town was in the year 1862.
The spring of 1863 was the period of lowest ebb in the for- tunes of the North and of the deepest depression in the hearts of the loyal. In Waldoboro casualty lists had brought mourning to numerous families, and Hooker's defeat at Chancellorsville had brought to the citizens both doubt and despair. This condition was not alleviated until the arrival of the news of Gettysburg and the surrender of Vicksburg on July 7th. The prevailing gloom was deepened by the failure of volunteering, which led Congress in March 1863 to pass the first conscription act. This move proved deeply repugnant to the people, and everywhere threats of re- sistance were audible. The first calls came to the towns in July, and the Government had prepared for all emergencies. Light ar- tillery - four and six pounders - were located at strategic points throughout the state, and the brass field pieces were kept shotted. There was ample reason for such precautions as is attested by the tragic riots in New York City which lasted four days, cost more
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than a thousand lives, and were suppressed only by the troops summoned from General Meade's army in Pennsylvania.
In Maine things were quieter, but there were minor out- breaks such as that in Kingfield where a mob of fifty men pre- vented the officers from distributing the draft notifications, and had to be suppressed by the Lewiston Light Infantry. In Warren the provost marshal was egged. The light artillery units, however, stationed in the neighboring towns of Wiscasset and Rockland had a quieting effect throughout Lincoln County. It is to the credit of Waldoboro that order was maintained in the town despite the strength of Copperhead sentiment.
Under the new Federal Conscription Act the allotments by towns were made by the Adjutant General in Augusta, and the lots were drawn there, from whence the lists were sent to the towns. The law clearly gave an unfair advantage to the wealthy, since, if drafted, they could meet their responsibility by hiring a substitute. Despite the new law, the towns continued their efforts to raise their allotments by volunteers, stimulated by the pay- ing of bounties. This method often brought the towns into compe- tition with one another in filling their quotas, and the less wealthy communities suffered accordingly. The Governor sought to curb this evil by advising uniform bounties of not less than $100 or more than $200. The Governor's counsel was in the main ignored and some towns offered bounties as high as four hundred dollars. To check such practices the state on December 9th directed that no recruit be credited to a locality paying a bounty in excess of $200.
Waldoboro sought to meet the July draft in part by the old system of raising volunteers. Its quota was not a heavy one. The allotment of the Adjutant General was Waldoboro, fifty men; Bremen, ten men; Nobleboro, fifteen and Boothbay, thirty-one men. The town, following the Governor's advice, "voted the sum of $100 be paid to each man that is drafted, that shall not be ex- cused in some way, or to his substitute when examined and ac- cepted." This sum was increased in the same month to $200. In this call there were both volunteers and draftees. The citizens thus drafted seemed to have met this obligation in person, for the record shows only two draftees furnishing substitutes. In July Moses M. Richards furnished Edward A. Bowman as his sub- stitute in the Army, and in September Alden B. Austin furnished Daniel B. Speed as his substitute in the Navy.
During these dark years the women of the town were con- stantly engaged in raising money for war purposes. They con- tributed $400 to the United States Sanitary Commission; $250 to the Christian Communion; $100 to soldiers in Maine camps;
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$250 to general hospitals in loyal states; $200 to regimental hos- pitals and $100 to wounded soldiers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Furthermore, they were active in helping needy families of soldiers from the town, of which there were 166 so aided, and the disbursements, including those allowed by the state, totalled $6419.41. The women used to gather at the home of Mary Clark on Main Street. This house, built by her husband, Colonel Atherton W. Clark, is the one now occupied by Arthur Brown. Here the ladies would read to one another the letters received from their men at the front, and in this way derived a very personal picture of the struggle and of the little needs of the soldiers in the field.17
The state election of 1863 was the third wartime election in which the issue was drawn between those citizens favoring an ac- tive prosecution of the war, and the Copperheads favoring a solu- tion by compromise. By the summer of 1863, Jameson, the leader of the War Democrats, was dead. This wing of the party was fast disappearing, and in the election the "Compromise Democrats" held the field unchallenged. They offered Bion Bradbury as their candidate for governor. Their attitude on the war remained the same as in 1861 and 1862, and their platform was clear even though its terminology was modified. It declared its support of "every constitutional measure tending to preserve the Union of the States . .. but not the present Administration, its course being destructive of the Union and the Government." In short, it was for a solution of the issues through compromise with the Confederacy.
The Republicans under the leadership of James G. Blaine deemed it wise in this election to drop the party name and replace it with a Union organization. Its convention call was addressed to all those "citizens of Maine who are unconditionally loyal to the Government of the United States and who unconditionally support all the measures for the suppression of the Rebellion." The convention met in Bangor in early July and under the leader- ship of Blaine nominated a loyal Democrat, Samuel A. Cony of Augusta, member of an old and prominent family in the state. The platform carried a vigorous indictment of the Copperheads, branding them as "a lawless band of conspirators, who had shown such an utter lack of the first instincts of patriotism as to make them dangerous counsellors in the present crisis of the country."
The issue between the two political groups was clearly drawn, and never in the previous history of the state was there such a thorough campaign. It was the most systematic and thorough can- vass Maine had ever known. Blaine staged rallies in every town and hamlet, and sent out literature designed to reach every voter,
17Oral narrative, Maude Clark Gay, granddaughter of Col. Clark.
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not once but many times. This tide of invasion swept into Waldo- boro, and its effect was to galvanize the Reed machine into vigor- ous action, and here in the local field it flashed power which completely swamped the Blaine onslaught. Despite the fact that the town had upwards of 300 votes in the armed services, Septem- ber 14, 1863, witnessed an outpouring of nearly a 1000 votes, and the results were catastrophic for Blaine's Union ticket. The vote was as follows: for governor, Bion Bradbury (Compromise Democrat), 774; Samuel A. Cony (Union Candidate), 202; for Senator, Joseph E. Smith, (Compromise Democrat), 775; Everett W. Stetson (Union Candidate), 200; representative to the Legis- lature, Samuel W. Jackson, (Compromise Democrat), 770; Wil- liam F. Storer, (Union Candidate), 199. Once again and more vigorously than ever before in the war years, Waldoboro affirmed its Copperhead conviction of solution by compromise, and James G. Blaine met more than his master on the local scene. In the state, as always, it was different. Cony was elected by a majority of 18,000 votes.
Always it was men and more men. In the autumn of 1863 the President issued a call for 300,000 more recruits. The towns, ever fearful of resistance to the draft and ashamed to secure men in this fashion, strained themselves to the limit to raise their levies by voluntary enlistment. On November 10th the citizens of Waldo- boro voted in Town Meeting "that the selectmen be authorized and directed to procure the quota of this town . . . and that they be empowered to pay each volunteer, who shall be accepted, a sum not exceeding $250 to employ such men as they think proper to assist them in procuring the quota of this town at as early a date as possible." The latter clause requires some explanation. The effort of the towns to maintain their quotas by enlistment, and of those drafted to find substitutes to take their places in the ranks of the armed forces, led to an entirely new line of business, the "substitute" or draft broker. These men throughout the eastern states hunted up those who would enlist and then sold their en- rollments to the towns or to drafted men desiring substitutes. These brokers were highly unscrupulous and were, in the main, men of bad character. Such men it was that the selectmen of the town in the vote of November 10th were told to use their dis- cretion in employing "to assist them in procuring the quota of this town." This practice became even more marked in 1864, when on February 20th the town authorized $25.00 for each man required by any call of the President, "to be used in paying recruiting agents." From this time on to the end of the war these substitute brokers were a steady aid to the town officers in meet- ing the requirement quotas of men for military service.
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The frequent appropriations on the part of the town for soldiers' bounties faced the citizens for the first time with the problem of major debt. For over three-quarters of a century the operating expenses of the town had been met mainly from taxes, and the limited debts, rarely incurred, had been of short duration. Now the situation had changed rapidly. By April 1864 the liabili- ties of the town totalled $37,080.25. On recommendation of the Committee of Accounts it was decided to "fund the war debt by issuing bonds on the faith and credit of the town," to run for a period not exceeding twenty years, with interest at six per cent payable annually.
This was by no means the end, for now the town was en- gaged almost continuously in enlistments for the next quota which was sure to come. In July the President called for 500,000 more men. On August 13th the town voted to raise $300.00 for boun- ties to each man required to make up the quota of the town. The drafting of men "in the 3rd District began in Augusta on Monday with the towns of St. George and Waldoboro."18 The quotas of the two towns were one hundred and fifty-six men, with Waldo- boro furnishing one hundred and twenty-four of this number. It was pretty near a matter of scraping the bottom of the barrel. A committee of five was appointed made up of S. S. Marble, William S. Brown, John P. Glidden, Horace Winchenbach, and Henry Farrington. These men were to appoint and organize a committee in each school district to comb their respective areas for enrollees. To meet the bounty needs for this task the town, in late August, voted "a tax assessment of $11,631.35 to be assessed and collected immediately." But even with a three-hundred-dollar bounty, meeting the quota was a slow task and on November 5th the bounty was again upped and the selectmen were "authorized and directed to pay for each recruit hereafter raised such sum as may be necessary to obtain them not exceeding $450. Also $400 to each man who shall put a substitute on the quota of the town for three years."
It was in this call that the draft was felt most heavily in the town, and for the first time draftees sent substitutes on an impres- sive scale. In so doing they could, of course, claim the bounty from the town for a substitute, but this bounty was by no means sufficient to foot the bill, and some were obliged to pay as high as $750 for their substitutes in this call. Some of the village folk meeting the draft in this manner were: Moses Burkett, Daniel W. Castner, George W. Caldwell, Henry Farrington, John P. Glid- den, Henry A. Kennedy, George H. Kuhn, Milton McIntire, Miles W. Standish, and W. A. Storer. Some of the substitutes
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