By Dana Lippitt, Curator, Bangor Historical Society
On April 15, 1861 President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling forth the militia of the United States. The residents of Maine answered with enthusiasm and volunteers came forward to enlist in the newly-formed regiments. The Second Maine Regiment, consisting of men from Bangor and the nearby region left Bangor on May 14th, just one month after Lincoln's call for troops, and the first regiment to leave the state.
One young Bangor man, Frederick H. Rogers, signed enlistment papers on May 3rd 1861. He mustered out on June 15, not with his friends in the Second Maine, but with Company K of the Fourth Maine. The Fourth Maine volunteers were from the Rockland and Belfast area were known as the Limerock Regiment. Frederick's father, Leonard W. Rogers, a carpenter, had died the previous August and his widowed mother, Hannah, certified that Frederick was 18 years old and had her consent as mother and guardian. He would not, however, celebrate his 18th birthday until later that year.
Three of the letters he wrote home to his mother survive in the collection of the Bangor Museum and History Center. They give us a glimpse of the life of a Maine soldier in the Civil War. At the time of Fred’s first letter, the Fourth Maine Regiment had been primarily engaged in the defense of Washington, D.C. They were encamped overlooking the Potomac and Alexandria Rivers near Franconia, in Fairfax County, Virginia two months after their involvement at Bull Run. Fred writes:
(Note: These letters are transcribed as they were written with no corrections for grammar, punctuation, or spelling.)
Lawsons Hill Vir. 11 Oct
Dear Mother,
I received your epistle of the 6th, and A little fellow in it that done me a sight of good. Tody is my birthday and I have just celebrated it by A good dinner. I will give you The bill of Fare
Roast Turkey (captured while on Picket)
Sweet Potatoes (bought at the moderate Price of 3 cts apeace)
Oysters (Raw with pepper & Vinegar)
Hoe Cake Salt Beef Etc etc etc etc
So you see I did not fare so bad, after all. I shall send you A drawing of our cook tents , Camps, etc. with this to give you an idea of our mode of living. I suppose you have some trouble to read my writing, but you must get used to it for I cannot write any better not now and I think I never can learn to do any better.
I should like very much to have some stockings and Mittens very much, and I must have A pare of Boots before
long A lot of the Belfast Boys are going to have them and I want you to find out what you can get A good pair on NO 8 or 9’s.
When we get paid up again I shall want a pair.
The weather is quite cold here, I was on picket last night and like to frose, although I had 2 Woolen Blankett and A good overcoat.
The 2d Maine Reg has moved from Ft Corcoran, and is now encamped about 4 Miles from Monsons Hill and I shall go and see them at the first opportunity.
I took A sketch of the country- and I will give you an idea of the place where we are encamped & picketed.
Our Reg has been partly furnished with Rifles and Co’s A & K are to have Winsor Rifles with sabre Bayonetts – they have come and we shall get them tomorrow or next day.
We get along as well as ever I feel contented and as well as ever I did – we shall no doubt have A fight in short time and shall walk our way through to Richmond.
Well I must wind up so goodby this time
Yours truly
Fred H Rogers
4th Maine Reg. 8th Brigade
USA
The Fourth Regiment would not see any action for the next seven months. They were, like the rest of the U. S. forces, being drilled and trained under the command of General McClellan. The Regiment would be engaged in six campaigns: Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Gaines Mill, White Oak Swamp, and Malvern Hill before the next surviving letter. A note accompanying two buttons sent home says “The S.C. is South Carolina. I cut it from the coat of that Col. Bretton of the 6th S.C. Vols. Whom I captured at the Battle of Fair oaks. The Virginia Button I got at Yorktown.“ The Ed Kent he mentions in the letter below is possibly Bangor resident and Supreme Court Judge Edward Kent. The Regiments often had well-known visitors from home.
Camp Kearney July10th /62
I sent a letter to you the 7th with Ed Kent but as I received one from you yesterday daited June 29th & 30th I thought best to answer it. We are encamped close to White Oak Swamp—or rather a pond which flows from it—it is stocked with Pike, Perch, Chubs, Eels and Turtle- of the later we might make a delicious Soup.
The banks of the Pond are almost covered with Roses- White and Red while the margin of the Pond for 6 or 8 Rods is white with Pond-Lillies. The woods about the camp are almost alive with Squirels, Hares, Phesants, with any quantity of Birds and some Snaix.
Some of the Artilery and Cavilry have been furnished with new Sibly Tents---Tents large enough to accommodate 20 men---and such as we had for winter quarters, I and it is rumored that we are about to have them too, and if that is the case you may rest assured that the Grand army of the Potomac is to be recruited and filled up to its former strength, and that no hostile demonstrations will be made by it till the weather gets cooler.
I will tell you the sort of tents we live in now-they are of linnen, of the same thickness as cotton drilling and each man is furnished with A piece just 6 feet square on each edge there is A row of holes and another of Buttons. We button the edges of 2 togather and throw them over A pole supported by 2 cruches and then pin another piece up to the end and A tent is made for 3 men. We are Provided with Rubber cloths 6 x 2 feet, which we lay on at night-or throw over our sholders when it rains. So you can see that large new Tents would come a acceptable as will A few weeks of Rest. . .
Gen. McClellan has issued an order to stop the Rations of Bacon and give out Potatoes – Onions and Dried Apple instead. I wish you could see some of the Bacon it is such green stuff. They take A Hog and split him lenghways and shave the bristles off and smoke him and it comes here called Bacon.
Our Brigadier General has got A cow and out of 17 men about his headquarters, not one of them could milk and he had to get one of our company to milk her for him.
I have written to Willy, and shall write again this afternoon.
I have not got the Papers that you spoke of yet but shall expect them tonight. . . .
Give my love to the children and Grandfather and Grandmother.
I shall answer all letters as fast as possible while we remain here.
Yours forever
Fred
By the date of his third letter, the Regiment had participated at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Chantilly and Fredericksburg. Often the regiments spent their time building forts and roads. As told in the letter, a corduroy road--a road of parallel logs packed with sand and laid over a swampy area--was being constructed near White Oaks.
Camp near Potomac Creek
Va. March 23 1863
Dear Mother
Last nights Mail brought the ever welcome letter and the cheering tidings of “all well at home” and thanks to A Kind Providence I am able to return the same message I am as smart as it is possible for such A naturly clumsy chap to be and in fact I am all right.
The weather is mild and pleasant, although we have had it bad enough for the past week
We are very pleasantly located – have plenty of wood —build five places in our little shelter tents, and live like nabobs.—(minus the pomp)
We have plenty of work – enough to eat – and with the cheering news from home each week we are full as happy as men could expect to be working at our trade.
We are engaged in laying A ‘Corduroy Road’ from Falmouth to Aquin Creek and expect it will take us 3 weeks longer – if I have space I will discribe the process when I get done with news. We have heard quite heavy firing on the Right Wing for 2 or 3 days, but I have not been able to discover its cause as yet.
The maine Cavalry has been of on A romp for about 3 weeks and have done A pretty good thing they have captured 4 Commissioned Officers; - 43 Privates; 60 Horses and Mules; A large lot of Boots & shoes; cloth ect. ect. I can assure you that Maine has got its name up during this campaign and so high too that it will remain up in the estimation of other and more popular States. Maine has now in the field 2 Major Generals, 7 Brigadeers, 28 Regt’s of Infantry 1 of Heavy Art. 6 Batteries, 2 companies of Sharpshooters & 1 Regt of Regulars 17th U.S. & 1 Regt Of Cavalry (call the best Volunteer Cavalry in the service) all of which are to be depended on in time of need. When our division went into the Battle at Fredericksburg Gen. Birney* was overheard to say to one of his Ade’s de Camp that he thanked God that he had got 3 maine regiments in his division for they would not run from anything no matter what example the other Regts. might set. Yes, as long as I have been in the field I never yet saw the time that I was not proud to say I am A maine man, and well might I be for never has A maine Regt. Disgraced its self by word or deed . . . . . . . .
I am much obliged to the one who sent that Veasie for it got A fine bit of Tobacco for me.
Well I must close please give me respects to all.
Yours truly
Fred H. Rogers
*Birney is A Philladelphian) The 3 Regts were the 3d 4th & 17th
In a little over three months the Fourth Maine Regiment would face some of the fiercest fighting of the war. On July 2nd they defended "Devil's Den" near Gettysburg from an onslaught of Confederate soldiers from the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Alabama Regiments. Frederick H. Rogers was killed in this battle. His name appears on the Civil War monument at Mount Hope Cemetery that honors the 236 soldiers from Bangor who died in the war (only fifty-five names were actually carved into the monument). A stone marks his grave next to his parents at Oak Hill Cemetery in Brewer.
Resources:
Alphabetical Index of Maine Volunteers, Etc., Service of the United States during the War of 1861. Supplement to the Annual Reports of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine, for the years 1861, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, and 1866. Augusta: Stevens & Sayward, Printers to the State, 1867. Print.
Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy. Alexandria, Va: Time-Life Books, 1996. Print.
Arms and Equipment of the Union. Alexandria, Va: Time-Life Books, 1996. Print.
The Bangor, Brewer and Penobscot County Directory. Boston: W. F. Stanwood, 1864.
Bishop, Chris and Drury, Ian. 1400 Days The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Gallery Books, 1990. Print.
The Bangor, Brewer and Penobscot County Directory. Boston: Samuel S. Smith 1859. Print.
Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign, A Study in Command. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968. Print.
Dalton, Peter P. With Our Faces to the Foe: A History of the 4th Maine Infantry in the War of the Rebellion. Union, Maine: Union Publishing Company, 1998. Print.
Illustrated Atlas of the Civil War. Alexandria, Va: Time-Life Books, 1996. Print.
Maine at Gettysburg, Report of Maine Commissioners. Portland, ME: Lakeside Press, 1898. Print.
Mundy, James H. Second to None, The Story of the 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry: “The Bangor Regiment”. Scarborough, Maine: Harp Publications, 1992. Print.
Shaw, Horace H. The First Maine Heavy Artillery, 1861-1865 : a history of its part and place in the war for the union, with an outline of causes of war and its results to our country, with organization, company, and individual records, by Charles J. House. Portland, Me., 1903. Print.
Stanley, R.H. and Hall, George. Eastern Maine and the Rebellion. Bangor, Me.: R.H. Stanley and Company, 1887. Print.