Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-10-30
A BRILLIANT RECORD.
What Lee Academy Did in the
Civil War.
Over 100 Brave Soldiers Sent Out from Tina,
One Institution.

4
one Of the bravest of them, gave a very
interesting response to the toast, Lee
Normal Academy in the War of the
Rebellion" at the recent reunion of the
students and pupils. AS the response
was of more than local interest, Mai.
House has kindly consented to allow
the Journal to use the paper. which is
as follows:
| | would that | had the knowledge.
the ability and the time TO do this sub
| ject justice to collect the facts and
go through the list, name by name ana
| show you the parts played in that
great drama of war by the former stu
dents of Lee Normal Academy. The
recital would be interesting, pathetic
| and tragic. From the time of receiv-
ing the news of the firing upon Fort
Sumpter. when Horace F. Hanson.
| then at work on the drive stuck his
peavy into the grand and remarked
Il am through with driving, | am go
ing to war" until late in 1865, when
Benjamin w. Rollins drew his last
breath, a victim of consumption
brought on by exposure in Southern
swampS. those years We're filled with
the sundering of family ties, with
weary marches. with burning fever and
malarial chill. with deaths by disease
and on the battlefield, and worst OF all,
with freezing. starving, dying men in
rebel prisons, and all endured by the
boys who had been our schoomates
here.
just how many entered the service
from this academy | am unable to. say.
h,, I ;nly ha i've
estimate They went from a score of
towns round about in this section. as
well as from distant states.
Several years ago. | made up care
fully prepared list of the men who went
from the town of Lee. being at the
time of their enlistment actual resi-
dents of the town. That list contains
100 names. and very large proportion
of them are of men who had attended
this school for Il longer or shorter
period. Twenty-Five of them re-en-
listed and served a second term. No
attempt was ever made TO raise COM
pany in this town, and so all who en-
listed from here went into companies
organized and officered in other places,
and all went in on the same leNel-that
is as private soldiers in the ranks. lt
speaks Well for the faithful service OF
these men when il is noted that three
Of them We're promoted to commission
ed officers. and IS others TO non-com
missioned officers. OF the l09, 20 We're
wounded and recovered; Is We're taken
prisoners. of whom six died in prison.
seven were killed in action or died of
their wounds, while IL died in hospi-
tails of disease, making the total num-
Der of deaths a. or y per cent. of the
whole number
And 50 my mind is carried back, to-
day. to that dark and bloody period
in our history when the slave power OF
the South waged war against our gov
eminent and threatened the destruction
of that union of states which had made
US a country among the nations of the
earth. q union sealed and made sacred
by the blood of our fathers when the
Young men and boys from Lee ana
other towns answered the call and went
forth to battle for the Union. for liberty
and the rights of man. men who had
be IN educated in these schools and had
learned the lessons of patriotism within
these academy walls. It was my priv
ilece TO associate with them. TO note
their patriotic impulses and daring
deeds, their suffering and endurance
under the most trying circumstances.
their self-sacrificing life and heroic
death.
recall with pride and with sorrow
the first time | saw the boys from this
vicinity under fire. pride at their sol
dierly bearing their lofty courage ana
their eagerness to meet the foe, sorrow
,,;, al %
made desolate and the hearts bowed in
grief as they mourned the absence q
those who would return no more. II
was one of those fearful battles during
the Wilderness campaign and the loss
was heavy, a third part Of the regiment
killed or wounded. | wildly recall the
stroll I took over the battlefield during
the night, and as I approached the
place where we had stood in line l pc
held eight or ten of my own company
dead laid side by side. the beams OF
the moon struggling through the fleecy
clouds. lighting up their upturned faces
| all smeared with the smoke OF batile
| some showing gaping wounds ana All
CHASTITY and lifeless; looking 70 the
right where the color guard ana COM
panv NJ had stood was another lot 81
dead carefully laid out TOR burial, ne
vond this another, and another. until
the woods were reached, and the same
thing away to the left. 1t was sol
umn moment as 7 gazed on the scene
at that midnight hour. my first look
| on a deserted battlefield, and how fore
iblv those rows of dead men reminded
me of the gavels of reaped grain among
which | had worked on my native hills.
but here the reaper was the Angel of
| Death.
Here | beheld the mangled forms of
men from this town and from NO. J,
from Springfield. Burlington, Lincoln,
and Chester. and from many other
towns in this section of the state. men
who perchance had gone forth from
their homes and firesides. your neigh
bors. your friends. your relatives.
In every battle fought by the Army
of the Potomac from the first Bull Run
to the surrender of AppomattoX. were
men from the town of Lee. In that I'M
fortunate and disastrous assault on
Petersburg, where the First Maine
Heavy Artillery suffered a greater loss
than that sustained by any other regl-
irent in a single action during the war.
your old school-mateS were among the
dead and dying. In those brllllant ana
MaVre'S Heights