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:
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.
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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. The President's call of October 17, 1863 called for 300,000 volunteers. For Maine's part in this fulfillment, 7,581 men needed to be raised [App. A, pg 17, 1863 Rep't]. Two new regiments of infantry (the 29th and 30th) and one of cavalry (the 2nd) were to be formed, while remaining recruits were needed to join the old organizations already in the field. The above advertisement, which ran in York County newspapers (the above clipped from the Maine Democrat on Dec 1st, 1863) called for veterans who had previously served nine months (they had been mustered out in July) to reenlist and claim a $502 bounty. $402 of this was federal money, while the state paid out $100. This was in addition to the bounties being paid out by the towns or cities, which was around $200-300. When mustered into service, $175. of the bounty would be paid in advance [see General Order No. 22 in Appendix A, of the 1863 Maine Adjutant General's Report]. George H. Ward, previously the captain of Co. A, 27th Maine, apparently was being considered to again be captain at the time of this ad. By the end of the year, however, his name had been removed from print. From 30 Nov to the first week of Jan. '64, the twelve companies of the Second Cavalry were mustered into service. The majority of Company L was mustered in on the 24th of Dec, 1863. Samuel H. Libby, formerly 1st Lieut. of Co. A, 27th Maine, was commissioned as captain. Under him, his former comrades from the 27th Maine filled the majority of the officer positions. They were: 2nd Lieut. William H Moody of Kennebunk Com. Sgt. William M Staples of Lyman 1st Sgt. Elisha E Clark of Limerick 2nd Sgt. James E Moody of Kennebunk 3rd Sgt. Moses T Sampson of Biddeford Cpl. Charles F McKenney of Limington Cpl. George W Oakes of Kennebunk Cpl. Adam McCulloch of Kennebunk (later transferred to the Navy) Cpl. George W Wakefield of Kennebunk Cpl Orrin F Ham of Saco Bugler Charles E York of Biddeford Wagoner Albra Garland of Kennebunk There were also 27th Maine veterans who served as privates (there were a few others who served in other companies within the 2nd Cavalry): James H Brown of Alfred (later transferred to the Navy) Charles H Clough of Biddeford Charles Cobb of Limerick John Conner of Limerick Almon C Durgin of Biddeford (promoted corporal) Edward Lord of Parsonsfield Edwin R Manson of Limerick Alonzo P Moulton of Parsonsfield James W Palmer of Hollis Chandler Peavey of Lyman Lewis G Stone of Parsonsfield Horace Taylor of Kennebunk The regiment was mustered into federal service on 12 Jan 1864 and left the state on 15 March, and were shipped straight to the Department of the Gulf and stationed in Louisiana. They later served in Florida and Alabama. Sickness overtook many of them, where 334 died of disease [ME State Archives; 1865 Adj Rep't shows 325], compared to the 10 killed or mortally wounded [Archives; Adj Rep't lists 6] in the few engagements they participated in. They were mustered out of service on 6 Dec 1865. Of the 27th Maine veterans in Co. L, Orrin Ham and Adam McCulloch did not survive the war. Links:
Muster-In Roll of Company L, Second Maine Cavalry: on Family Search Muster-out Roll of Co. L, 2nd Maine Cavalry: on Family Search Second Maine Cavalry page on: Maine State Archives Digital Maine Depository: CDV of William H Moody Digital Maine Depository: CDV of Samuel H Libby During his time serving in Company I of the 27th Maine, Private CHARLES W. GOOCH wrote over fifty letters to his wife Julia, back home in Kennebunk, Maine. The following is a letter he wrote to her on the 18th of March, 1863. I've transcribed it as written, with lack of punctuation and spelling errors included. Clicking on pictures will enlarge them for better reading.
Notes:
Pg. 1 - "Camp General Casey" was located near the Fairfax Seminary, outside of Alexandria, Virginia. The regiment had moved there in January 1863, and would relocate to Chantilly on the 24th of March. Pg. 2 - On this page, Charles is writing about his deceased daughter Cordelia, who had passed away back on 23 Nov. 1862, aged 6 years. Pg. 3 - "gussy" is Augusta Gooch, his three-year old daughter. Pg. 3 - "an old fellow", probably not a volunteer from Kennebunk, as he'd have known him, and probably would have mentioned him by name. There were a few 40+ year olds in the company, including John Bracy of Alfred, George Buzzell and George Emmons of Lyman, and John Buzzell of Biddeford. Pg. 4 - "Williams little girl" likely refers to Sarah, dau of William Emery, who was wife Julia's brother. She was aged 1-yr in 1860 Kennebunk census. FORT ALBANY was located on Arlington Heights, southwest of the Long Bridge that led into Washington, DC. The land to the rear of this earthwork structure was used as a parade ground for the frequent review of the thousands of soldiers encamped nearby (at Camp Seward and Camp Chase). Below is an 1861 drawing, printed in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper on 31 August 1861, while it was still being constructed. The Arlington House is in the background, on the left, while the Potomac River and the White House are in the distance on the right side of image. Below is another image of Fort Albany, this time facing south and looking at the main gate. This was also from 1861, with New York troops encamped outside. It was built to overlook the Columbia Turnpike, which is the road running horizontally through image (it turns south after passing the western view of the fort). To the east of the fort (left side of above picture from this view) is the Roach (or Roche) farm, which can be seen on the 1862 map seen below. As Seth Bryant mentioned in his journal (Nov 11th entry), the troop review was on the flat back of Fort Albany, which would have been below the Heights. On that day, he says that after the review they marched on to the road and, instead of taking a left back towards Camp (Seward), they turned right towards the Long Bridge, and marched down to the flat marshy ground by the river. The location of Gen. Casey's gathering would have been somewhere in the location marked with the red circle. Fort Albany no longer exists, as the earthworks and hillside was completely eliminated for the highway system, with Rt. 395 now runs through its former location. A historical marker stands in Prospect Hill Park (1025 S Arlington Ridge Rd, Arlington, VA 22202) to mark the nearby spot. Links:
1862 Map of N. Eastern Virginia and vicinity of Washington -[LoC or Rumsey] Defenses of Washington Marker Series [Fort Albany on Flickr] Fort Albany at Arlington Heights, 1861 (E.F.Ruhl, Publisher - LoC site) Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 31 Aug 1861 [Vol. XII, pg. 253] The Historical Marker Database: Fort Albany |
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