Few of the new troops had military training or experience. Maine Adjutant General John L. Hodsdon wrote that the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861 "found Maine as little prepared to furnish troops for maintaining the integrity of the Union, as it is possible to conceive."
The poster sought recruits for Col. Francis Fessenden's Veteran Regiment. Fessenden, the son of Senator and later Secretary of the Treasury William Pitt Fessenden, served in the regular army before his appointment as colonel of the 30th Maine Veteran Infantry in September 1863.
Bounties were an important method of recruiting soldiers. During the war, Maine's cities, towns, and plantations paid $9.7 million in bounties; the state paid $4.6 million. The money helped the family members left at home.
