USA > Maine > The history of Maine, from the earliest discovery of the region by the Northmen until the present time; including a narrative of the voyages and explorations of the early adventurers, the manners and customs of the Indian tribes, the hardships of the first settlers, etc > Part 42
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The Seventh Mounted Battery, under Adelbert B. Twitchell of Bethel, as captain, was sent to Virginia, and in its first battle, at Spottsylvania, fought from morning till night. In that battle it obtained celebrity which gave it rank with the most experienced batteries in the army. At Bethesda Church and Cold Harbor, it was again under a severe fire. In front of Petersburg it took part in the fierce strife which raged there for so many months. Sharpshooters were continually watching for every exposure, and sixty-four-pound mortar shells were fre- quently thrown over their ramparts. The battery was composed of a superior class of men, and was highly commended for its discipline and efficiency.
An independent organization was raised, called the First District Columbia Cavalry. Maine contributed about eight hundred men to this organization. Col. L. C. Baker was in command. These troops plunged into that series of bloody battles in Virginia, which attended the close of the war. They encountered victories and defeats, but rendered efficient service, and, when attacked by overwhelming numbers, displayed brave- ry which could not have been surpassed.
The Thirty-First Regiment of infantry was rendezvoused at Augusta, and was pushed forward rapidly to Virginia to aid in the concluding scenes of the conflict. George Varney of Ban-
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gor was colonel. He was succeeded by Col. Thomas Hight of Augusta. The regiment immediately took part in the battles of the Wilderness, fought bravely, and suffered severely. In one of their first conflicts they lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, two hundred and ninety-five men. Then, for six successive days, they were under fire. At Petersburg they won great praise. Sickness, wounds, death, and capture at one time so reduced the regiment that but sixty reported for duty. Recruits were sent to fill up their dwindled ranks.
The Thirty-Second Regiment of infantry was rendezvoused at Augusta. Mark F. Wentworth of Kittery was colonel. Vir- . ginia was the theatre of their exploits. At Spottsylvania, they were placed in the most exposed part of the line. For eight successive days they were under fire. The carnage encountered in the conflicts in which these troops were engaged was awful.
Another military organization was formed in Maine, called the First Regiment Veteran Artillery. John Goldthwait of Windsor was in command.
But we must bring this brief narrative to a close. It would require far more space than we can give, to do any thing like justice to the achievements of the troops of Maine during the war. The space which can be devoted to that subject here enables us to present but little more than a catalogue of the most important organizations. Many heroic deeds are left un- recorded. Even the names of many men whose deeds merit record, we cannot mention. We can only give an abstract, and a very imperfect one, of the heroic efforts which the citi- zens of Maine made to rescue our country from the foulest rebellion to be found in the annals of history.
During the four years of this dreadful strife, Maine sent seventy-two thousand nine hundred and forty-five men to the battle-field. She furnished thirty-two infantry regiments, three regiments of cavalry, one regiment of heavy artillery, seven batteries of mounted artillery, seven companies of sharpshoot- ers, thirty companies of unassigned infantry, seven companies of coast-guards, and six companies for coast fortifications ; six thousand seven hundred and fifty men were also contributed to the navy and marine corps. The total number who perished
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during these campaigns, in the army list, amounted to seven thousand three hundred and twenty-two. We have no record of the killed and wounded, and of those who died of disease, in the navy and marine corps. The whole amount of bounty paid throughout the State was nine million six hundred and ninety- five thousand six hundred and twenty dollars and ninety-three cents. Hospital stores were contributed to the amount of seven hundred and thirty-one thousand one hundred and thirty-four dollars.
The above record is a surprising one. No one would have deemed it possible that the State of Maine could have sent so many troops to the field, or that she could contribute such vast sums to meet the expenses of the war. In the narrative of this dreadful conflict it will be generally admitted that there are two of the sons of Maine who merit especial mention.
Gettysburg was perhaps the turning-point in the tide of bat- tle. Gen. Lee, with ninety thousand men, was on the rapid march to overwhelm the diminished army of Hooker, capture Washington, and enrich the Confederacy by the plunder of the cities and granaries of Pennsylvania. He concentrated his giant army at Gettysburg. Gen. O. O. Howard, with the Eleventh Corps, was sent forward to do every thing in his power to retard the advance of the rebels, while divisions of the Union army were hurrying, by forced marches, to the position where it was now evident that a decisive battle was to take place.
With eight thousand men, Gen. Howard met the brunt of battle, and drove back the foe. His corps was posted on Ceme- tery Hill. Its capture was certain victory to the rebels. Lee, the ablest general of the rebels, gathered up all his strength for that purpose. It was late in the afternoon ; the enormous masses of Early's division advanced in majestic march to the attack. There stood Gen. Howard, with his calm, manly, honest face. " An empty coat-sleeve is pinned to his shoulder, memento of a hard-fought field before, and reminder of many a battle-scene his splendid Christian courage has illumined." After a terrific struggle the rebels gained a position, where they made prepara- tions for a desperate assault on the morrow, with scarcely a doubt of their success.
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At the early dawn, the batteries of Gen. Howard thundered forth their challenge for a renewal of the fight. Soon the battle was resumed, with all its indescribable tumult and dreadful fury. Gen. Howard, who was guiding this tempest of war, was calmly leaning against a gravestone. His aids were gathered around him, watching the sublime sweep of the war- cloud before them.
" I have seen many men in action," an eye-witness writes, " but never one so imperturbably cool as this general of the Eleventh Corps. I watched him closely as a Minie whizzed overhead. I dodged, of course : I never expect to get over that habit ; but I am confident that he did not move a muscle, by the fraction of a hair's-breadth."
At length the whole field of battle was buried in a cloud of smoke. Gen. Howard, turning to one of his aids, said in calm tones, " Ride over to Gen. Meade, and tell him that the fighting on the right seems more terrific than ever, and appears to be swinging around towards the centre ; and ask him if he has any orders."
The aid soon came galloping back, with the reply, "The troops are to stand to arms, sir, and watch the front."
Firmly they stood, pouring in a steady storm upon their foes, while the thunders of one of the most terrible battles ever waged on earth deafened the ear, and the ground was strewed with the wounded and the dead. I am not, however, describ- ing the battle, but simply an important incident in the battle. On they came, yelling like demons, six brigades in number. Two hundred and fifty pieces of rebel artillery were concentrat- ing their fire upon our centre and left. It is said that Gen. Howard ordered one after another of his guns to be quiet, as if silenced by the fire of the enemy. The rebel lines came rush- ing on, four miles long. From that whole length there was an incessant blaze of fire, emitting a storm of bullets, balls, and shells, which it would seem that no mortal energies could en- dure.
When the foe was within point-blank range, so that every bullet of grape or canister would accomplish its mission, the cannoneers sprang to their guns. Sheets of flame and smoke,
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and death-dealing iron and lead, smote them in the face ; and they fell as though the angel of death had spread his wings on the blast. When the smoke cleared away, the charging lines before Cemetery Hill had vanished. The ground was covered with mutilated bodies, some still in death, and many writhing in agony. A few stragglers were seen here and there, on the rapid retreat.
The gloom of night was soon spread over this awful spectacle. In the morning, Lee commenced his retreat. He had lost in killed, five thousand five hundred; in wounded, twenty-one thousand ; in stragglers and deserters, four thousand ; and nine thousand prisoners. Humiliated and bleeding, the fragments of his army hastened back to Virginia, having lost forty thou- sand men. At Gettysburg, the death-blow was given to the heart of the rebellion. Maine may well feel proud of the part which her illustrious son Gen. O. O. Howard took in that decisive battle. Even the catalogue of the skirmishes and bat- tles in which Gen. O. O. Howard took an heroic part would be a long one.
Major-Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain entered the army from his professorship in Bowdoin College, as lieutenant-colonel of the Maine Twentieth Regiment of infantry. It was his. priv- ilege to receive the surrender of Lee's army. The scene of the surrender was sublime. The whole rebel army was flying in utter defeat from Richmond and Petersburg, over the hills and through the vales. The Union army, more than double its number, was pursuing it on the north, the east, and the south.
The flight of the enemy was truly a rout. The path of the flying foe was strewed with abandoned artillery, muskets, wagons, and all the débris of a defeated army. Soon the rebels were overtaken upon a plain surrounded by hills. The Union army came pressing on, like a resistless flood, and its batteries were planted upon the crests which encircled the plain. There was no escape for the rebels. They must either surrender or be annihilated. Lee surrendered just as the Union soldiers were ready to open their deadly fire. Our troops received the first tidings from the shouts which burst from the lips of their rebel foes. These haggard men, weary of the war into which
MATTHEWS."
THE NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED SOLDIERS, ( Eastern Branch,) TOGUS, ME.
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they had been dragged, as they heard the news that the war was closed, were almost frantic with joy. Cheer after cheer rose from the vanquished, which was echoed back in shout after shout from the victors who surrounded them. Both voices, that of friend and foe, blended in the joyful cry which one would think must have awakened responsive joy among the angels in heaven.
The soldiers on both sides seemed to have lost all memory of past animosities. With the Union troops there were tears and prayers and cordial embracings. The long agonies of the san- guinary conflict were forgotten. The troops, who, in long lines in the rear, were hurrying forward to the supposed scene of battle, heard the shout, and knew not what it meant. But it increased in volume, and came rolling down the ranks, nearer and nearer, in thunder-peals. For miles the mountains and the forests and the valleys rang with the exultant cheers of those who had trampled the rebellion beneath their feet.
Major-Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, one of the heroes of Gettysburg and Petersburg, and many another bloody fight, chanced to be with his division in the van. He drew up his troops in a straight line, a mile in length. An equal division of the rebel army was marched to a parallel line in front, at the distance of but a few feet. All were silent. Not a bugle sounded ; not a drum was beat ; not a voice was heard.
As the vanquished foe came up, Gen. Chamberlain ordered his men to present arms. This honor, paid to the heroic vic- tims of a cruel rebellion in their hour of humiliation, brought tears to the eyes of many rebel officers. One said, "This is magnanimity which we had not expected." The defeated troops returned the courteous salute before they laid down their arms. As this division filed away, another came, and another, until twenty-two thousand left behind them their arms and their banners.
Lee's army had been more than three times that number. But thousands had been captured ; large numbers had been killed and wounded ; and other thousands had thrown down their arms, and dispersed in all directions, to return to their distant and utterly impoverished homes. The rebel troops
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were starving. In their disastrous flight they had been com- pelled to abandon their provisions. The Union troops, in their eager pursuit, had taken but a scanty supply ; but they divided their rations with their conquered foe.
No pen can describe the joy with which the tidings of Lee's surrender was received throughout our war-weary and exhausted land. The Union was preserved. Our nationality was estab- lished. The star-spangled banner was again to float in undis- puted supremacy from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf. The crushing-out of the rebellion established freedom throughout our whole land. It was clear to every mind, that our country. was entering upon a new era of prosperity, wealth, and power. The State of Maine contributed her full proportion in the ac- complishment of this glorious result.
And the country has not been ungrateful to her heroic sons, who have accomplished such glorious results. Many monu- ments have been reared to perpetuate the remembrance of those who have sacrificed their lives. At Togus, a few miles east from Augusta, a large and commodious retreat has been reared by the government as a home for the disabled soldiers. Here, honored by all who visit them, these sons of Maine and of other States, rendered helpless by the exhaustion of war, or mutilated by the terrible enginery of battle, are provided with every thing the nation can give to minister to their comfort. From thousands of Christian churches and firesides the prayer fervently ascends, that God will bless them, for all that they have done and suffered, that our land might be rescued from anarchy and ruin.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.
Maine, its Location and Size - Mountains - Katahdin - Temperature - Agricultural Products - Various Industries - Ship-Building - Railroads - Slate Quarries - Little Blue Quarry - Water-Power - Annual Rain-Fall - Manufacturing Facilities - The Saco Basin - The Androscoggin - The Kennebec - The Penobscot Valley - The St. Croix - The St. John - The Salubrious Climate - Prospects of Emigration.
"THE State of Maine lies between 42º 57' and 47° 30' north latitude, and 5° 45' and 10° 10' east longitude from Washington. It is the most easterly State of the Union, embracing an area of thirty-two thousand square miles, which is equal to twenty million acres. It is larger than all the other New England States united. The greatest length of the State, in a diagonal line from the mouth of the Piscataqua River to the extreme northern angle, is three hundred and twenty miles. Its greatest width, from the sea near Passamaquoddy Bay west to the Canada line, is one hundred and sixty miles. A straight line running from the mouth of the Piscataqua River to Quoddy Head, the extreme north-eastern cape, would be two hundred and fifty miles in length.1
The surface of the State is diversified with high mountains, broad intervals, and undulating plains. Much of the north- western region strongly resembles Scotland in the grandeur of its eminences and the beauty of its crystal lakes. In Franklin County Mount Abraham rears its majestic brow three thousand four hundred feet above the level of the sea. Mount Blue, in the same county, is a celebrated place of resort. Its summit reaches the height of two thousand eight hundred feet, and opens to
1 Annual Register of Maine for 1874-5, p. 102.
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the eye a view of sublimity and beauty which richly rewards the tourist who ascends its cliffs. The Sandy River winds along its base, whose banks are adorned with thriving New England villages. Webb's Pond and other beautiful lakelets gleam like burnished silver through the surrounding forests; and the brows of majestic mountains rise around till their cliffs fade away in the distant horizon. Bordering the Canada line there is a range, called the Highlands, two thousand feet in height.
Near the coast there are some lofty eminences which arrest the eye of the voyager far out at sea. Here some internal convulsions of nature have thrown up thirteen huge granite - mountains. They can be seen at a distance of sixty leagues, and are the first landmark caught sight of by the mariner approaching our coast. The highest peak reaches an eleva- tion of one thousand five hundred and fifty-six feet.1 Upon the summit of one of these mountains there is a lake, clear as crystal, many acres in extent, without any visible outlet or inlet. The Camden Hills, on the Penobscot, reach an elevation of fifteen hundred feet.
Mount Katahdin is one of the most remarkable elevations in the State. It is situated about seventy miles north-west of the head-tide of Penobscot River. The mountain is about twelve miles in circumference at its base. Its difficult ascent was first accomplished in the year 1804, by a party of seven gentlemen from Bangor and Orono. They judged its summit to be ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Under the fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, surveyors were appointed to ascertain its altitude ; and they pronounced it to be four thou- sand six hundred and eighty-four feet above a small river at its foot, called Abalajacko-megus, which river was, at that point, eleven hundred and fifty feet above the tide-waters of the Penobscot.
This measurement was not deemed satisfactory, as their instruments were out of order. Subsequent surveys have given its altitude at about five thousand five hundred feet. Its
1 Williamson gives the attitude of the highest peak at two thousand three hundred feet ; Dr. Jackson, in his Geological Survey, at one thousand nine hun- dred feet ; C. O. Boutelle, in the United States Coast Survey, at one thousand five hundred and fifty-six feet.
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ascent is difficult. Its sides are covered with a dense forest, until within about a mile of the top, where all vegetation ceases. The summit is a plain, about half a mile long, but much more narrow, covered with a surface of dry white moss. The view opened from this point is sublime. The small irregu- larities below seem to be levelled to a perfect plain. Sixty lakes of varied dimensions and very picturesque forms can be counted. On the north-east the view is uninterrupted, till lost in the deep blue of the horizon. Towards the south the spectator can see the heights of Mount Desert, at the distance of one hundred and twenty miles.
Among these mountains, lakes, and rivers there is spread out a region of rich and extensive valleys, which will eventually afford homes to a vast population. It is true that the winters are long and cold ; but the summers are delightful. There is, probably, not a more healthy climate in the world. And the clear winters, with the pure atmosphere, are seasons of great enjoyment. No one, who has spent a winter in South Carolina and in Maine, will deny that there is more suffering in the former place from the cold than in the latter. And in South Carolina there is no escape from the sultry, burning, debilitating heat of the summer nights.
The annual average of temperature in the State, as ascer- tained by tables kept at the observatory on Munjoy's Hill, in Portland, for the thirty-two years between 1825 and 1857, was 43° 23' Fahrenheit. The highest point to which the mercury ascended during that time was 100° 5'. The lowest point was on the 24th of January, 1857, when the mercury descended to 25° below zero. At Portland the proximity of the ocean diminishes both the summer's heat and the winter's cold. Far back in the northern counties the mercury occasionally falls several degrees lower.
At Brunswick, according to the meteorological record kept by Prof. Cleaveland, the annual mean temperature for the same fifty years was 44° 40' Fahrenheit. The highest temperature was 102°; the lowest, 30° below zero.
The average number of rainy days in Maine is sixty-four during the year. The smallest number, in any year, was thirty-
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nine ; the largest, ninety-five. The average number of snowy days was thirty. The lowest was nineteen; the highest, fifty. July is the only month during the year in which frost in that region has never occurred. The amount of water which fell, consisting of rain, and snow reduced to water, was, in the year 1857, forty-seven inches and sixty-six hundredths. In 1858 it was forty-three inches and forty-two one-hundredths. In 1859 it was forty-eight inches and fifty-five one-hundredths.
In the year 1874 there were published in the State, seventy- two newspapers, most of them weekly, a few daily. There were also sixty-two banks and fifty-six savings banks. There is an increasing appreciation of the adaptation of the State to secure all the blessings of healthful and happy homes which this earth can give. The God of nature seems to deal in compensations. If Maine needs some of the advantages which other States enjoy, she receives in return blessings which make up for the loss. There are many who can say, -
" I love my own State's pine-clad hills, Her thousand bright and gushing rills, Her sunshine and her storms ; Her rough and rugged rocks that rear Their hoary heads high in the air, In wild, fantastic forms."
The beautiful granite of Maine is every year growing more in demand for building purposes, and will eventually become an important item of export. The granite-quarry at Hallowell fur- nishes as admirable building stone as is found in the world. It is of great solidity, and, when dressed, presents a surface quite like marble in appearance. In the year 1874 three hundred thousand tons of ice were shipped from Maine. Ice that is formed where the mercury is twenty degrees below zero is much more solid, and withstands the summer heat more firmly, than that which is formed where the mercury is ten above cipher. The ice-crop promises to be a fruitful source of income.1
There is a general impression that Maine is not a good agri- cultural State. But statistics prove conclusively that in those sections of the State where manufacturing and industrial opera-
1 Address of Gov. Nelson Dingley, 1874, p. 41.
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tions have been well developed, thus opening a market, the farm- ers are as prosperous as in those States where crops are more easily reared, but must be sent to a great distance to find a pur- chaser. The hay-crop of Maine in 1873 amounted to two million tons, whose market value was estimated at twenty-five million dollars. This greatly exceeded the value of the wheat- crop in any of the Western States of equal population. The products of the dairy, which ever command a ready sale, were over two million dollars. The aggregate productions of the farms, including live stock, reached the large sum of fifty-seven million dollars.
It is a very gratifying fact, that emigration from the State is diminishing, and that there are indications that the tide is again turning towards those fertile fields where fever and ague are un- known, where timber is abundant, where pure, cool, crystal water gushes from the hillsides, where the air is invigorating, and glowing health abounds. Not one-half of the State has yet been reached by the tiller of the soil. There are still three million unimproved acres in the region of the Aroostook. The territory there, inviting the settler, is equal to the whole of Massachu- setts. The soil is deep and rich, and there a population of a: million people might find homes of competence.
Manufacturing, commercial, mechanical, and mining enter- prises are very rapidly being developed. In the year 1873 the cotton-manufactures of the State amounted to twelve and a: half million dollars ; wool manufactures, to seven million ; boots. and shoes, nine million ; leather, four million ; paper, three- million ; flour and grist-mill products, two and a quarter mil- lion ; iron, cast and forged, two million and a half ; machinery,. two million and a half; edged tools, three-quarters of a million ;. oil-cloths, a million and a half; bricks, half a million ; fertili -- zers, about eighty thousand dollars ; fish and kerosene oils, half a million ; fisheries, three-quarters of a million.
The ice cut from our rivers amounted in value to over half a million dollars ; the granite, cut from supplies which can never fail, brought four and a half million dollars; the lime- amounted to nearly two million dollars; and the majestic forests, still covering millions of acres, brought to those engaged in that one branch of industry nearly ten million dollars.
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