The Civil War veterans of the 27th Maine (with their honored guests and family) held an annual reunion on the 27th of August (unless it fell on a Sunday), beginning in 1882. This recent purchase brought to light the fact that Company C, which had been raised in Buxton and Hollis, also held their own reunions.

Their first meeting was held on Saturday, Jan. 14th, 1893, at the Knights of Pythias Hall in Buxton Center, where a permanent organization was formed. Captain Joseph F. Warren was elected President, Henry A. Chadbourne, Vice-Pres., James M. Hopkinson, Secretary, and John Martin, treasurer. 17 former members of the Company were present during the afternoon business meeting.
[see write-up in the Biddeford Weekly Journal, Jan. 20, 1893, pg 2] 

The above postcard was addressed to "B A Dow" of Standish Maine. The postmark is smudged, but was in Sept. 1899, and would have been for the seventh annual reunion. This man, Benjamin Ayer Dow, was not a 27th Maine veteran, but belonged to the 17th Maine Infantry, and apparently was an invited guest.

The Biddeford Weekly Journal, at times, would mention these reunions in their Buxton notes. They were still active in 1907, when a meeting was written about in the Sept. 20th issue of the newspaper. It was noted that, out of 100 men in Company C, 30 were left, and 11 were present at the annual reunion.

It was June, 1863. General Lee and his rebel forces had invaded Pennsylvania, and the Army of the Potomac was marching to intercept them, clearing the land around Washington, D.C. of troops. The 27th Maine, their nine-months of service expiring on the 30th, were anxiously awaiting orders to head north for home.

The following morning, Col Wentworth formed his regiment together in a square around him and read the request. Capt. Bryant, Co. I, wrote in his journal that they "formed in line, and all willing to stay were requested to step out in front". At first count, 176 men stepped forward. Throughout the day, others would change their mind, until there were 300 volunteers. That evening, the others began packing up and Major Hill, who had volunteered his services, was instead asked to lead the rest of the regiment to the train station. Col Fessenden and his 25th Regiment, who had chosen not to stay behind, left for home as well.

On Wednesday, 1 July 1863, Col Wentworth and his volunteers reported to Brig Gen'l DeRussey, who was commanding the defenses around Washington, at his headquarters in the Arlington House. Where they encamped for the next three days is unknown, but was somewhere along the Arlington Heights.

On the afternoon of Saturday, the 4th, the results of the Battle of Gettysburg were announced, and the order received to march for Washington. That evening, the train left for Portland, Maine. They arrived there on the 6th, and went back into camp. They would be mustered out over a week later, on the 17th of July.

It was not until the following Sept that Secretary Stanton began the process of preparing the medals for the 27th Maine men. E. D. Townsend, the Ass't Adjutant General, instead of procuring a list of the 300 volunteers who actually stayed behind, had created one from the muster out rolls, a list containing 864 men! He sent it along to clerk John Potts of the War Dep't, who sent it to Wm Wilson & Son, the manufacturers of the medal.  

On 26 Jan 1865, the office of the Adjutant General sent the medals to Gov. Cony of Maine. He wrote to Mark Wentworth on the 30th, inquiring what all the medals were about. The colonel replied on Feb 2nd, explaining the situation, and asked the governor to forward them to Kittery, and he would take charge in distributing them to his former soldiers.

The medals were sent out, or hand delivered, to the volunteers who were on Wentworth's list, through (at least) May of 1865. An article printed in the May 24th Lewiston Evening Journal wrote that "they have just been distributed", the author stating they had just seen the one awarded to Capt. Jeremiah Plumer of Co. F. The over five hundred "extra" medals not meant for distribution were supposedly sent back to Augusta, but were again returned to Wentworth, who stored them away. The whereabouts of those unawarded medals...well, that's for another entry.

See also (pages on this site):
312 (pages from the History of the Twenty-Seventh Maine)
Medal of Honor List (comparing the 312 list with the 299 one)
Blog: A Medal Found (One of the undistributed medals found on a Wells beach)

On Family Search: a checklist, from the Maine State Archives, likely the one Wentworth used in distributing the medals to the volunteers: the 299 list
​

General Orders, No. 195, was issued by the Adjutant General's Office of the War Department, under orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, on the 29th of June, 1863 [General Orders of the War Department, 1861-1863: Vol 2, pg 219-220]. This order would hit the local newspapers in a few days, and nationwide within a few weeks. The message would carry headlines such as "Medals for Volunteers", "Medals of Honor for Soldiers", etc. An "appropriate" medal of honor was being offered for troops choosing to remain beyond their expiration of service, as well as for those troops who volunteered to defend Pennsylvania and Maryland "in the present emergency", ie. the "Pennsylvania Emergency", or the invasion of the north by the Confederate Army. 

On the same day (the 29th), Daniel Somes entered the camp of the 27th Maine, bringing with him the request from Sec. Stanton and the President, asking both the 25th and 27th Regiments to remain behind a few days [see Medal of Honor blog].

Two weeks prior to this, General Lee had entered Pennsylvania. Sec. Stanton contacted New York State's Gov. Seymour, asking him to raise 20,000 volunteers from the state militia and rush them to Harrisburg. Nearly 14 thousand were raised, 12k of which were on the march the following day. With the Army of the Potomac a few days behind the rebel army, the guardsmen wouldn't have fared well had General Lee attacked Harrisburg. 

Meanwhile, the 27th New Jersey Infantry (a nine-month regiment) was due to reach the end of their service on the 19th of June, and had been ordered to proceed home from Kentucky. Gen. Burnside, on the 17th, sent a telegram to Stanton, telling him that the 27th N.J., currently with him in Cincinnati, Ohio, had volunteered to stay on one more month and had been sent to Pittsburg, PA.[telegram in the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6]. They then proceeded onto Harrisburg, guarding the bridge there on the 26th. The city deemed safe from an attack, they returned home for mustering out on July 2nd.

Fast forward to the 1870's. The war was long over, and the 27th Maine was the only regiment to receive their medals. But, what of the other units who also volunteered?

On behalf of the New York militia volunteers, the Legislature in NY passed a resolution on 9 Apr 1876, urging the Federal government to keep its word. Three years later, Thomas C. Reed of the 27th NJ Inf. requested a medal for his volunteer service based on G.O. 195, but was told that no funds had ever been appropriated for those medals promised in 1863, and so rejected his claim. He tried again in 1884, and the Medal of Honor was issued to him on 17 May of that year. Upon hearing this, four other soldiers from his New Jersey regiment also applied and received their medals [A Shower of Stars, pg 110].

On 12 May 1896, the House Committee of Military Affairs agreed to a resolution in authorizing the issuing of the medals, and funds were set aside for this purpose, but nothing more came out of this. Even the Assistant Secretary of War, in May 1896, had no objection to carrying out the orders of GO 195, and had regretted that there had been such a long delay [Buffalo Evening News, 30 Jan 1900, pg 4].

During this time, however, there were numerous other requests for medals, not just because of the GO, but for other actions that took place during the war. There were talks of totally shutting down any awarding of medals months before the above resolution was spoke of. One chairman estimated they would need some 200,000 medals to cover all of the applications [The Indianapolis Journal, 16 Mar 1896].

The New York militia volunteers never did get their medals. When the purge came in 1916-1917, the five New Jersey veterans of the 27th Infantry were among those who also had their Medal of Honor revoked.

DECORATION DAY, the 30th of May, was originally a day set aside to honor those soldiers who died during the Civil War, to visit and decorate their graves with flags, flowers and wreaths. Now MEMORIAL DAY, it includes all of those who died while serving this country.

Twenty men of the 27th Maine Infantry died while serving their country, all but one from sickness. Nearly all were returned home and buried back in their home state.

I have been to a dozen of their burial places, the photos of their graves below: 

To read more about the 27th Maine Volunteers who died, please see the DECORATION DAY blog I wrote back in 2013.

The SONS OF VETERANS (later renamed the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) is a fraternal organization, the legal successor to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), with a dedication to preserving the history and legacy of those soldiers who fought to save the Union. First organized in 1881, its membership formed Camps within their communities, in most cases choosing names of local Civil War veterans or fallen heroes, in a way of honoring the men who had served.

One of these Camps, instituted in Kittery on the evening of Thurs., 5 March 1903, with 21 charter members [Ports. Herald, 6 Mar 1903, pg 8], was named for the late colonel of the 27th Maine, Mark F. Wentworth. It was originally given the Camp number #20, though in later years (prior to 1919, perhaps by a charter surrender and reorganization) it had been renumbered to #105. It was active through 1932. 

The above clipping is a notice printed in the Biddeford Weekly Journal on Fri., 14 Jan 1921, covering the annual installation of officers of the Wentworth Camp. Among them were several "Sons" of the Kittery men who served with Col. Wentworth, in the 27th and the 32nd Maine. The elected officers in 1921 were:

Manning Lawry, son of Franklin E, 27th Maine
E.M. (Everett M) Moore, son of Moses D, Co. D, 1st Maine Cavalry
Leonard McCloud, son of James A, whose step-father since birth was George W. Remick, 32nd Maine
A. H. (Albert Henry) Cruse, son of William H., 32nd Mass Inf
J. L. (Jesse Lincoln) Philbrick, s/o Charles L and Emily (Jordan), her father Robert having served in the 24th Mass Inf
M. L. (Maurice L) Duncan, s/o Edwin A, 17th Maine
E. F. (Eugene F) Hayes, s/o Alfred C, gr-son of George H, 27th Maine
Clarence Chick, s/o Sylvester, 27th Maine
E. W. (Edward W) Hunting, s/o Israel, 44th Mass Inf

Other SUVCW Camps that were organized in the state of Maine that took the names of 27th Maine Volunteers included:

Horace H. Burbank Camp, No. 20, Saco (Qrmtr Sgt)
Lt. William H. Miller Camp, No. 44, Sanford (Lt, Co. E)
Seth E. Bryant Camp, No. 59, Kennebunk  (Capt, Co. I)
Maj. John D. Hill Camp, No. 75, Bar Mills (Buxton)
Capt. Frank A. Hutchins Camp, No. 89, Waldoboro (of Kennebunkport, Co. K)

Are you a "SON" of a Civil War veteran, or someone who is interested in Civil War history and wants to be part of preserving their history? Join the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War today!

For those living in Maine, please check out the Maine SUVCW. For those in New Hampshire, please visit the NHSUVCW.org website for more information. The National organization's website, www.suvcw.org, includes a listing of all other Departments throughout the United States.