The Republican journal., 1917-04-26
"reminiscences of The First
Maine Cavalry.

The transfer of the Maine men in the
1st D. c. to the LIST Maine Cavalry on the
oath of September, what was left of the
eight companies from Maine of the 1st
D. c. Cavalry after the fight at Sycamore
| church, an account of which was given in
my last paper, were formerly transferred
to the 1st Maine Cavalry, writes John
W. West in the Lewiston Journal. Gen.
Smith, at that time the colonel of the 1st
Maine, in an Grafton delivered at Pittsfeld,
in 1880, thus speaks Of the consolidation
SIN September, 1864, so much of the
First District of Columbia Cavalry as
had been raised in Maine-eight or nine
companies in ala regiment in itself.
was transferred to the First Maine.
They were our friends and nelghbors at
home. They had served with US in the
same great army in the same campaigns,
and side by side with US in battle. Their
coming was to the regiment a magnifi-
cent recruitment of veterans. The con-
solidation was effected with singular har-
mony and success, while the only import
ant change made in the regiment by the
transfer was, that it became thereby
immensely more First Maine Cavalry
than before, and in the record of its sub
sequent campaigns of battle and victories,
from Boydton plank road to historical
Appomattox, we see only one regiment
and one history"
That was the way it appeared ''to the
man men higher up"-the commanding
officer. But it was quite different to the
rank and file. The transfer was largely on
some in hospitals, some at the dismounted
hnrSoa ap1 H.,
tached duty, but by tar the greater num-
Der of the absentees were in rebel pri-
sons, captured in the Wilson raid and at
Sycamore church a few days before
the transfer. Many of the men borne on
the transfer rolls and assigned to the diff
ferent companies of the 1st Maine were
at that very time dead or died before
their release from the rebel prisons, and
who never saw the regiment. As an
Illustration, of the Is men Of Co. G,
who were captured at Sycamore church,
only three were known to have survived
the barbarities of the prison pens of the
South.
At first the transfer created consider
able ill feeling on the part of the men
from both regiments, especially among
the commissioned and non commissioned
officers, whose chances of promotion
were lessened Nor is this to be wonder
ed at for the men of the grand old regi-
ment who had served out their first term
of enlistment, and had re- enlisted for
the rest of the war, with the hope and
promise of promotion, which they had so
richly merited in more than score of
hard fought battles, were sadly disap-
pointed, for when vacancy occurred, a
man from the first D. G. was assigned to
fill it. In many of the companies the
complement of officers was largely in
creased, especially was this the case of
the nom commissioned officers, and those
from the first d. G. were mustered on
the rolls as unassigned. The non-con-
missioned officers belonging formerly to
the first D. C. claimed that according t.
the articles of war, they were entitled to
their discharge and sent petition to the
secretary of war to be mustered out of
the service, but their petition was
pigeonholed. They also sent delegate
to Washington to intercede with the war
department, but to no purpose. The
government was in need of men and
kept them. But the disappointment was
not all on one side, for when vacancy
in the commissioned staff occurred to
which man from the first D. c. was en-
titled by his rank, transfer was made
to fill it and the promotion was given to
man from the old regiment.
This will show that there were several
ways to ''skin cats" In the army as we'll
as at home. AS a matter of history only
one sergeant from the first D. C. re-
ceived commission, and that was Jeff
l.. COburn, well known in this city. He
was promoted second lieutenant, Co. H. i,
May 2, '65.
At the time of the transfer, the
men of the first Maine cavalry were
veterans tried and true, and had won
fame and a name second to none in
the Union army. They were SPLEEN
didly differed and thoroughly disciplin-
ed, having participated in more than a
score of the hardest fought battles
of the Civil War. The regiment had cut
the red tape of the tactics then in use
and had adopted the single rank forma-
ton instead of the cumbersome double
rank, so that when it deployed from the
column into line every man on the firing
| line was in the front rank and had room
to fight according to his size and bravery.
Lieut.. Tobie in his history of the First
Maine thus speaks of the transfer:
"This transfer at first created consider
able feeling on the part of the men of
both commands, especially among the
commissioned and nom commissioned
officers whose chances of promotion were
lessened; and besides this, the boys of
the First Maine were inclined to look up
on the newcomers with disfavor. i"
| Would they stand the test under fire, or
in charge? But after they had been to-
gether in few engagements, the old
men found that the new recruits were
from Maine and had the reputation and
honor of the grand old State at heart.
From that time until the end of the
war the men were all members OF the
First Maine and all alike jealous of its
glory and fame and the regiment lost
none of its prestige by this addition.
After the transfer, the regiment was
engaged in nine great battles as follows:
Boydton Road, Bellefield, Dinwiddie,
| Eames Cross Roads leatonsuille SaiIora