Maine History Online

Maine Runs Washington

In 1860 Maine supported Republican Israel Washburn for governor. The Republicans organized under the leadership of Abner and Stephen Coburn of Skowhegan, former governors Anson and Lot Morrill of Augusta, Frederick and James Pike of Calais, and the seven Washburn brothers of Livermore Falls and Orono.

As a stronghold of Republicanism, Maine played a key role in Washington, its most prominent statesman being Hannibal Hamlin.

A lawyer from Paris Hill, Hamlin edited the Oxford Jeffersonian, then moved to Hampden and was elected to the state legislature as a Jacksonian Democrat. He served two terms in the U.S. House in 1843-1847 before moving to the Senate. In 1856 he joined the Republican party and was elected governor in 1857.

He resigned almost immediately to return to the Senate and was picked in 1860 as vice presidential candidate on Lincoln's ticket. He languished in the vice presidency and was dropped at the 1864 Baltimore convention in favor of Andrew Johnson, an overture to the Confederate border states. He returned to the Senate and after the war served as ambassador to Spain.

Senator William Pitt Fessenden, a Bowdoin graduate and Portland lawyer, was elected to Congress from the second district and then to the Senate in 1854. There he served on the Senate Finance Committee where he guided legislation for the nation's first income tax through Congress in 1863. When Salmon Chase resigned in 1864, he became Lincoln's secretary of treasury, controlling the vast outlays of money used to conduct the war in its last year.

Fessenden returned to the Senate after the war. Although he sided with the Radical Republicans as chair of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, he cast a deciding vote against impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1865, a stand that cost him a good deal of political support.

Maine and the Civil War

Mainers participated in the Civil War in more ways than politics. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Governor Israel Washburn issued a call for 10 regiments of volunteer infantry and three regiments of militia to be armed by the state.

Some 10,000 Maine volunteers responded, and after a few weeks of drilling in crisp new uniforms, they shipped south on steamers, leaving behind families, farms, and jobs.

In the early months, Maine met its draft quotas easily, furnishing altogether 31 regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and one of heavy artillery, along with assorted companies of artillery, sharpshooters, and unassigned infantry, and 6,000 sailors for the Navy. Approximately 73,000 Mainers served in the Union Army and Navy during the war, the highest figure in proportion to population of any northern state.

Many served with distinction. The 7th Infantry, for instance, fought bravely during the Peninsula Campaign in spring 1862 at Williamsburg, Garnett's Farm, and White Oak Swamp, winning acclaim from Major General George B. McClellan, and again under Major Thomas W. Hyde during the desperate battle of Antietam in September 1862 at the Piper and Roulette farms. The First Maine Heavy Artillery suffered more battle losses than any other federal regiment (having 12 companies rather than 10) in an attack on the Confederate defenses at Petersburg.

Joshua L. Chamberlain of Brewer best exemplifies Maine's role in the war. A Bowdoin College graduate and professor of rhetoric and modern languages at Bowdoin at the time of his enlistment, Chamberlain took part in 24 major battles, was wounded six times, and led a desperate charge at Petersburg in 1864.

He is most remembered for his role in the valiant stand taken by the 20th Maine at Little Round Top during the battle of Gettysburg, for which he was awarded a Medal of Honor. Gettysburg was a pivotal battle of the war, bringing to a halt General Robert E. Lee's plan to drive into Union territory and drop down on Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Victory there, he hoped, would encourage peace sentiment in the North and convince Great Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy.

More than 150,000 soldiers fought in the three-day battle, resulting in 50,000 casualties and making Gettysburg the largest battle ever fought in North America. On the first day, holding actions by units of Maine's 2nd Artillery and 16th Infantry helped delay Lee's advance while Union forces found positions.

On the second day, Lee sent troops in a flanking maneuver around the southern slope of Little Round Top, where Chamberlain's 20th Maine Regiment was positioned. The troops held up under relentless Confederate assault, and as their ammunition ran low, Chamberlain, by his own account, noticed that southern troops were equally exhausted and nearing the end of their own supplies. In a desperate gamble, he ordered a bayonet charge.

The 20th routed the Alabama infantry and halted the Confederate flanking maneuver. Chamberlain was later promoted to brigadier general and chosen to receive the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox.