USA > Maine > The history of Maine > Part 42
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
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ties of Knox, Hancock, and Waldo. Bangor was its place of rendezvous, and Nathaniel H. Hubbard of Winterport was its colonel. These troops were first sent to Arlington Heights, then to Fortress Monroe, then to Newport News, then in a magnificent fleet to Ship Island, then to New Orleans, then to Baton Rouge. Here commenced the dull routine of camp-life. After a delay of two months the Twenty-Sixth, with other forces, was put in motion on the march to Port Hudson. Hav- ing accomplished the object of this expedition, they returned to Baton Rouge, and there embarked on a river steamer, and descended sixty miles to Donaldsonville. From this point they took up their line of march to Thibodeaux, thirty-six miles west of the Mississippi. Thence the troops were transported by rail to Brashear City. Upon this expedition the regiment engaged in the battle of Irish Bend. It was a hard-fought conflict, amidst scenes of sublimity and terror which deserve minute record. In this deadly struggle the regiment lost sixty- eight men out of three hundred. From the blood-stained field the troops ascended the Bayou Teche to the Red River.
On the 26th of May they returned to Brashear City, after a bold, fatiguing, perilous campaign of forty-three days, beneath the blaze of an almost meridian sun. They proceeded to Port Hudson, and took gallant part in the siege until the rebels surrendered. Having thus performed their engagements, they ascended the river to Cairo, and thence home. In this gallant expedition of nine months two hundred of the noble sons of Maine were lost.
The Twenty-Seventh Regiment was mainly from York County, and was rendezvoused at Portland. Rufus P. Tapley of Saco was colonel. Its first destination was Central Vir- ginia. Through a severe winter the regiment remained, guard- ing, much of the time, a picket-line eight miles long. Col. Tapley was succeeded by Lieut .- Col. Wentworth. This was the most anxious hour of the war. The rebel Gen. Lee, with his immense forces, was moving up for the invasion of Pennsyl- vania. Incendiaries were crowding our Northern cities. Trai- tors in the North were openly avowing sympathy with the Southern rebellion. Want of confidence in the commander of
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the Union army rendered a change necessary. All the old troops had been sent forward to oppose the exultant foe. The national heart was oppressed with anxiety. Washington was left exposed. The term for which this regiment had enlisted had expired.
The President and the Secretary of War entreated the Twenty-Seventh to remain for the protection of the capital. It was a remarkable regiment. Gentlemen from each of the liberal professions were in its ranks, and farmers and mechanics, who were making heavy pecuniary sacrifices by their absence from their homes. They remained. The battle of Gettysburg was fought ; and the dark cloud of peril passed away. Greeted with benedictions in Washington, these patriotic troops were received at home with blessings. The regiment left Maine nine hundred and forty-nine strong, and had never less than seven hundred and forty ready for duty. Medals were awarded to the men by the War Department, for serving beyond the term for their enlistment.
The Twenty-Eighth Regiment was under Ephraim W. Wood- man of Wilton, colonel. They proceeded first to New York, and were quartered one night in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, where Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and prominent members of his church assisted in nursing the sick. After spending a short time in that vicinity, the troops were sent to New Orleans by the way of Fortress Monroe. It would be difficult to describe their vast variety of marchings and counter-marchings, their skirmishes, and the innumerable arduous toils which they performed. Some of the conflicts in which they engaged were as desperately fought as any during the war.
The Twenty-Ninth Regiment was rendezvoused at Augusta. George L. Beal of Norway was colonel. It was sent immedi- ately to New Orleans. These troops, many of whom had previously enlisted for nine months, entered almost immediately upon a series of bloody battles. In the sanguinary conflict of Pleasant Hill they won a signal victory. Col. Beal was placed in command of a brigade. On one expedition the troops marched four hundred miles. They were at one time sixty hours without sleep, and with but little food ; and during that time they marched fifty-six miles, and fought two battles.
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Having performed wondrous deeds of toil and gallantry in the far South, the regiment was sent back to Virginia, and took part in the conflicts which were raging there, until the term of its service had expired.
The Thirtieth Regiment of infantry had in its ranks quite a number of experienced soldiers. Francis Fessenden of Portland was colonel. It sailed, in the steamship " Merrimac," from Port- land for New Orleans. Sickness pervaded the ranks. They marched one hundred and sixty miles, over the marshy lands of Louisiana, to Natchitoches. They encountered sleet and drench- ing rain-storms, with rough and miry roads. Not a few dropped by the wayside, utterly exhausted, and were captured by the enemy. Skirmishes and battles ensued, with incidents of chival- ric courage, which we have no space to describe.
Between the 15th of March and the 22d of May, this regi- ment marched five hundred miles, and engaged in four battles, losing two hundred and twenty-eight officers and men. From New Orleans the troops returned to Virginia, and engaged in toils as severe as flesh and blood could endure. During one year these hardy men marched over a thousand miles. The true story of what they did and suffered, for the salvation of their country, no pen can describe.
The Second Regiment of cavalry was composed of remarka- bly robust men. Ephraim W. Woodman of Portland was colonel. They were sent to New Orleans. One hundred and fifty horses died on the voyage. Most of the regiment was im- mediately ordered to the front to take part in the Red River expedition. After a season of active service the regiment was sent to Pensacola, in Florida.
At Marianna, the shire-town of Jackson County, there was a terrible conflict in the streets. The rebels threw up barricades, and opened a furious fire from churches, houses, and stores. Major Nathan Cutler of Augusta had two horses shot under him, and fell with a broken leg, a shattered wrist, and other severe wounds. From all these wounds he recovered. Many others were killed or wounded, twenty-nine in all.
But in this successful raid the troops took one hundred pris- oners, a large amount of commissary and quartermaster stores,
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two hundred and fifty horses and mules, four hundred head of cattle, and five hundred contrabands. There were several other raids, one into the State of Alabama. In one of these a train of fifty wagons was brought into camp, by Lieut .- Col. Spurling of the Second Maine, for a distance of sixty miles through the enemy's country, while attacked almost every hour, in front, flanks, and rear, by a force superior to his own.
The change from the pure air and healthy food of their homes in Maine to the malarious climates of Louisiana and Florida, and all the hardships and deprivations of camp-life, caused so much sickness, that at one time, from a regiment of nine hundred and eighty-nine, only four hundred and fifty reported for duty. The sad condition of the regiment being made known, Maine · immediately sent to the suffering men a bountiful supply of vegetables and other articles for their comfort.
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 debris 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
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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.
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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.
T HE State of Maine lies between 42º 57' and 47º 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.
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