In The Portland Daily Press, on the 4th of August, 1890 [link: Chronicling America] the above notice was printed [and copied by the Daily Whig on the following day]. A Medal of Honor, which was inscribed to Philip Banfield of Company E, 27th Maine, had been found on a beach in Wells, Maine, and the former soldier was being sought out for its return.

​At the time of this publication, Philip Banfield was an inmate in the Soldiers Home out in Milwaukee [1890 Vet. Sch: NW Branch Nat'l Home, pg 85], living there since March 1884. He had been transferred there from the Hampton, Virginia (Southern) Branch, first admitted into the system in Sept 1881. He returned to Maine in July of 1891, when he was transferred over to Togus. There were no furloughs mentioned in the paperwork from the earlier facilities, which may have shown him traveling to Maine, or in the vicinity of.

..."a reward for his patriotism in remaining behind in Washington"
However, Pvt Banfield was NOT on the list of those men who stayed behind in Washington, so this medal would have been one of the 500+ extras not distributed by Col. Mark Wentworth. As mentioned in "A Shower of Stars" [pgs 129-130: Erastus Moulton's 1904 letter], the undistributed medals were returned to Augusta, Maine, where they sat in City Hall, until the building was remodeled, and the medals were sent back to Wentworth in Kittery. 
​
It has been stated that (as Moulton's letter continued), while having a 27th Maine Regimental Reunion in Kittery, some of the attendees went into the Colonel's stable and grabbed some of the medals, later offering them to those whose names were written on them (though many did not accept them). The date of this incident was most likely either 12 Sept 1888 or 27 Aug '89, as Wentworth berated many of the men who showed up "at a reunion in Biddeford" [the 27th of Aug 1891 being the only time a reunion was held there] wearing these unearned medals.

How did this medal end up on a beach in Wells?
​Was Banfield's medal one of those stolen from Wentworth's stable and, since this soldier was probably not in attendance at the reunion (him being in the Milwaukee Soldiers Home in 1888-1889), his medal was just discarded? It is even possible, considering the inscription is on the back side of the medal, that someone else had been wearing his medal and tossed it out after one of the Kittery reunions.

There was never a follow-up article about this in the newspaper. "Joseph Fountain of Great Falls, NH", himself a Civil War veteran (with the 6th NH Inf), died in 1895. I wonder what ever became of this medal.

More about:
Philip Banfield (his bio page)  

During his time with the 27th Maine, Private Charles Gooch, of Company I, wrote over fifty letters to his wife Julia, back home in Kennebunk, Maine. The following is a letter he wrote to her on the 15th of January 1863. I've transcribed it as written, with lack of punctuation and spelling errors included.

Notes:
(pg 1) "Theodore" is Theodore Gooch, a cousin of Charles W Gooch, who also lived in Kennebunk. His full name is mentioned in an earlier letter.
(pg 2) The Christian Watchman and Reflector was a Baptist newspaper style weekly periodical, printed in Boston, MA. The article mentioned by Charles was likely from the Dec 25th issue (viewable on Genealogy Bank w/ subscription), which included a letter written by a soldier at Fort Albany, describing the 27th Maine (and other units) marching onto the grounds.
   (fath) = perhaps he meant "faith"? As he wrote this word on both ends of the sentence where he declined the offer of milk, was he fibbing about already having coffee that morning? Charles was a religious man, so perhaps he felt bad about lying to the Irishman and wife, so called that out in his letter.
(pg 4) "Isaac" is Sgt Isaac Emery of Kennebunk, who was the brother of Charles' wife Julia.

It is the final day of 2018, and I shall soon be entering my 14th year of having an online presence for my 27th Maine research. 

My original goal of finding more about the soldiers of the 27th Maine Infantry is nearly complete, if such a word can ever be used with any kind of genealogical work. I have researched every man in the regiment and, while there are a few that have completely stumped me, the overall mission was a success. Of the 946 (or 949, as was officially reported) men in the regiment, I have been able to find the burial places for 890 of them. 842 of these have memorials created on Find a Grave (578 of them under my management), and I have personally visited 639 of them, in order to photograph the stones and/or the plots (for those with no stones).

I hope that, in this coming new year, I will be able to make more trips to the cemeteries located out of state, and continue recording these burial sites. With many newspapers now being scanned and uploaded online, especially those from the New England states, finding more information about the 27th Maine and its volunteers is getting a bit easier. Lets hope that it leads to solving a few of these "dead ends" I have.

Here's to 2019!

Steve 

Camp Abraham Lincoln, Cape Elizabeth
The 25th Maine had already marched out on Thursday, the 16th of October, 1862, followed two days later by the 23rd Maine, who were escorted into Portland by the men of the 27th Reg't and the Portland Band. The Seventh Maine Infantry, who had returned from the war front for furlough and recruiting, took over the quarters that formerly housed the 25th Maine.

This would be the last weekend in Maine for the 27th Infantry, as they had received their marching orders - they'd be leaving on Monday morning. Rumor had it that they would be heading to New Orleans. The First Baptist Society, with a church on Federal Street, invited the men from the Twenty-Seventh to attend their Sunday service at 10:30 in the morning, the Rev Dr. [William Hosmer] Shailer to "preach a sermon appropriate for the occasion" [Portland Daily Press, 10/18/62].

Sunday morning came, and a crowd gathered at the church to watch the men march in for the service. They never showed, so the congregation was admitted inside their church.

It was later learned that an incident occurred at Camp Lincoln on Saturday night, where troops had lit the sutler's tent on fire. As reported in the Portland Daily Press on Monday, the 20th, there had been word of the upcoming torching, so the goods stored there had been removed.

Seth Bryant, captain of Company I, wrote in his diary about Oct 18th:

With extra guards put on duty, the restless troops got quiet and went to bed. Tomorrow would be a busy day.

It is not known if the soldiers were restricted from leaving camp on Sunday due to the fire, or perhaps it was due to all of the last minute packing that needed to be done before the 3 a.m. reveille on Monday morning would send them off on their nine month tour of duty in Virginia.

Notes:
Capt Bryant, in his diary, said the troops had attempted to set the sutler tent of the 25th on fire as well. As this regiment had already left two days prior to this, had their sutler not joined them in their trek southward? Maybe he was still in the process of packing up his goods, and would meet up with them later. The Portland Daily Press, on 10/17/62, did mention in their news article about the 25th 's departure, that some 70 men were left behind, as some were still out on furlough, and others were sick. The sutler likely had remained behind, and would take the train with the remaining troops.

In 1862, the First Baptist Church on Federal Street was located where the rear side of the Portland Fire Station on Congress St now stands. It would have been a 2.4 mile march had the 27th Maine Volunteers gone to the Sunday service.

JOSEPH PORTER was the first man of the Twenty-Seventh Maine to die, succumbing to a "congestion of the lungs" on Tuesday, October 7th, 1862, in the hospital at Camp Abraham Lincoln in Cape Elizabeth. 

Other reports would list his death date as the 8th, so perhaps he passed away some time during the night. He was buried in Portland in the afternoon on the 8th, with his company in attendance.  ​But, where was he buried?

The Portland city records were checked, and the following entry for Joseph Porter was found [Vol. 6, pg 17-18]:

The date of death written into the book was "November 5", with a burial on 7 Nov 1862. The cause of death was correct, though his age here was listed as "27 years" (the news article had said 'aged about 30', while his enlistments papers claim he was 24 years of age). This entry may be a reinterment from another burial place, thus the differing dates. The only one of his name in the books, I don't believe this is a different person, just errors in recording the event.

Sadly, his burial plot in the Forest City Cemetery was "No. 22, S. Ground". This was the Strangers Ground*, where those without families or friends to claim them or purchase their plot were laid to rest. Though the strangers ground is marked on a map* of the cemetery, the actual plots inside this section are not, and the cemetery does not have records as to where this particular plot #22 would have been located. 

​JOSEPH PORTER was a sailor, and was from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (the Descriptive Roll says New Brunswick), enlisting on behalf of the quota of the town of York, Maine. It is not known if he enlisted while in town, or may have signed up later in Portland when town agents needed to fill their quotas (there were several sailors from the area outside of York County who ended up in Company D). As the 27th ME was raised without there being a draft, the above news article erred in saying Mr Porter was a sub was a drafted man. He MAY have subbed for someone that was rejected from the company enlistment or, most likely, accepted a town bounty and just signed up. There were a few of this name in the Yarmouth area in the 1851 and 1861 Canada censuses, and it is not possible (at this time) to determine which one, if any, might be him.

​An unknown soldier, in an unmarked grave.

Notes:
​*In later entries, the "Soldiers Lot" or "S. Lot", would at times be called the "Soldiers Ground" (or S. Ground), but the burials in this plot were numbered in order of their burials, so #22 would not have been used in 1862.
* The map of the cemetery was done during the WPA of the 1930's (they can be found here: WPA Maps), with the strangers ground being on the eastern side of the cemetery.  
Sources for images:
Portland, ME Records of Deaths: Vol 6, pg 19 (on Family Search)
Portland Daily Press, 9 Oct 1862 (on Chronicling America)