Maine Memory Network

After graduating from Bowdoin College, Oliver Otis Howard (1830–1909) of Leeds, Maine, attended West Point, during which a twenty four-year-old Howard wore this triple-breasted wool coatee with a standing collar. The chevron insignia signifies the rank of cadet captain.

In 1861, O.O. Howard joined the Union Army. He commanded the 3rd Maine Regiment before his promotion to brigadier general by September that same year. Howard served in several infamous campaigns, including at the Battle of Seven Pines, where he lost his right arm and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his action. Despite the amputation, Howard continued to serve, retiring from the Army in 1894.

General Howard is best remembered as the U.S. Freedman’s Bureau commissioner, and his role in founding Washington D.C.’s Howard University. During Reconstruction, the Freedman’s Bureau supported integrating Black men into postwar society, with Howard University providing educational opportunities for both Black men and women. During his career, General Howard tirelessly advocated for newly freed Black communities, including in Maine, but his legacy is complicated by his role in campaigns against Indigenous peoples during the so-called “Indian Wars,” specifically against the Nez Perce Nation.

In 1833, Benjamin Shepard Judkins (1800-1878) was commissioned into the Maine militia. Major Judkins’ service coatee is made from a superfine wool broadcloth and features gold detailing, including trefoil designs made of three overlapping circles. The buttons are an early version of Maine militia buttons.

During Northern Threads' physical exhibition (2022) the coatee was paired with Judkins’ heavy felted wool cape, lined with a remarkably intact brown printed corduroy.

The cape's buttons, only two of which remain, are perhaps vegetable ivory, a plant-based precursor to plastic. Basic in its construction, this garment is a survivor, and the oldest menswear cape in the MHS collection as of 2022.

Major Judkins lived most of his life in Palmyra, Maine, where he operated a family farm. After 1870, Judkins joined his son in Hastings, Minnesota, where he died in 1878. He is buried at Palmyra.

John Marshall Brown was active in the Maine militia, including its reorganization after the Civil War. A brevetted general, Brown served as adjutant in the famous 20th Maine during the Civil War, and eventually commanded the 32nd Maine. Wounded at Petersburg, he returned home, where he worked for his family’s real estate firm J.B. Brown & Sons.

Brown’s advocacy for veterans is an important part of his legacy. Most notably, he was instrumental in establishing Togus Veteran’s Home, one of the first medical facilities of its kind in the nation. Brown was also an influential member of Maine Historical Society. Credited with stewarding MHS’ move from Brunswick to Portland in the 1870s, it is befitting that he, along with his wife Alida Carroll, are the Brown Research Library’s namesakes.

General Brown’s double-breasted dress coat is reminiscent of a Civil War frock coat. The brass buttons are embossed with the State of Maine seal. The star on the collar denotes the rank of general. The shoulder boards on each shoulder include metallic thread and velvet designs.

John Marshall Brown's militia shoulder boards, also known as shoulder knots.