Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-09-16
REUNION DAY
Of I'd Maine Cavalry and
the 9Th Maine Battery.
Comrades Of First Shake Hands With
Each Other at WaterviIIe.
And Those Of the Latter Exchange Greet.
inas at Gardiner.

| Waterville, Sept. 15.-(SpeciaD.-Tht
I'd Maine Veteran Cavalry Association
Is very much alive, thank you, and
they have grip upon life that they
don't intend to shake right away. They
are here life size and lot of them a
that. The I'd Maine has record tha
1t need not be ashamed of. They are
| veterans every one of them and the
country owes them just as much as il
owes any other regiment that saw ser.
vice. 1t is true that this regiment die
not have as many engagements as
some others but it suffered as few
others suffered during the war.
| 1t may not be very well known by the
younger generations. those who have
come to us since the war that the
State of Maine sent out but two cav
| airy regiments to the war, but such is
the fact. The 1st Maine Cavalry has a
record of it's own and that will b. at
tended to later on in these columns as
the reunion of that is soon to be held
the I'd Maine. When the call to arms
was sent on the wings of lightning to
every corner of the nation among the
states to respond nobly was the old
Pine Tree State. Maine sent the flower
of her firesides to the war and right
nobly did they strive for the supre-
macy of right over wrong.
This is no time to indulge in explana-
tons of the causes that led to the war,
1t is enough that was was and is over.
The call came for three months men,
and then for mine months men, and
yet later for the war; The I'd Maine
Cavalry was made up Of men who had
responded to the first call and the sec
ond and had returned home with the
war still an awful reality. Their re-
enlistment meant much and they re-
enlisted. 1t was in those days when
the life of the nation hung in the bal
ance. Though is is many years since
the war closed these war SCARED
heroes can look down upon us of the
younger generations and say
My children. little children.
With your faces bright with youth,
AS you watch the thinning army
AS you see them fast receding
In that strange. Old-fashiOned way,
To the old. whose hair is silvered,
1t will seem but yesterday.
How beautiful their faces
AS they left our firesides,
And went drifting from our KISSES
AT the turning of the tide.
How the bugle's silver speaking
Drowned the woman's last goodbye
And the drum-beat hushed their footballs
AS they marched away to die.
To die, perhaps by the rebel bullet,
yet if not by that the disease that
created more havoc in the camp Of
times than the enemy's fire. 1t is not
hard to imagine the suffering to the
men who had left comfortable homes in
the North to go to the pestilence in
tested sections of the South into which
the Southerners purposely led them,
in order that disease might aid the
cause of the South. The soldiers who
fell, either at the mouth of the can
non of the enemy or from disease, fell
in the defense of his country for he was
there for business.
The I'd Maine Veteran Cavalry Regi-
ment was mustered into the United
Stats service at Augusta, in November,
1863 having been recruited, as 1 have
stated. from the ranks of the regiments
that had seen service at the front. On
the 10 of April, 1864, the embarkation
of the regiment was begun at Portland.
1t required 10 steamers and sailing YES
sells to accommodate the regiment and
it took three weeks to get the fleet off
to New Orleans. The first battalion to
arrive in that city was sent with Banks
on that disastrous expedition up the
Red river against the Confederate Gen
eral Kirby Smith.
For some time, until the fall of that
year, 1865. l think. the regiment per-
formed provost duty through the state
of Louisiana and latter was sent to |
Barancas, Fla. from which station it |
operated against Mobile, Ala. The |
regiment did more or less scouting, des-
troying railroads and supplies. That |
section was the foundation cf supplies |
for the Confederate service at the time |
and it was absolutely necessary to pre- |
vent the comfort of the enemy.
The regiment participated in the
was in that state at the time Of the |
surrender of Lee at Appomattox and |
when Lincoln was assassinated. The /
regiment was required to assist in
out the affairs of the |
state, when many of the Southerners
to their homes and found them
taken up by others who had squatted
on their estates. Then the regiment
returned home to Maine and was mus
tered out of service at Augusta, Dec.
Il, 1865.
Many of the men of the regiment re-
NAMED in the South or returned there
o and went into business, having mar
RED Southern ladies but the business
proved to be disastrous for the reason
IF the prejudice against Northerners.
rhe men of the regiment spread abroad
throughout the land and now they have
come to Waterville from all over the
lnion that they helped to preserve
they are here hale and hearty. Grip
Icd nd inf Int |