Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-08-06
TALES OF THE
THIRTY FIRST.
A GAIL Mt MAINE REGIMENT
IN Tue CIVIL WAR.

Z cut j. ii. Bea'e IN Portland sunday Times.
sept 49, lgGg.j
This history OF an organization OF
Name volunteers which was called into
the field among he very last to DC Sent
from the pune tr.u ,ts.e, uut which bore
40 incon>Iderable part OF the rdships
and burdens iur,ient to the final year Of
the great struggle Itch reat this
country in 1851 ) hiss never teen ade-
qultuly written. Ihi5 j. doubtless owing
to the iac, tnaj toe eyeS ot Ile people OF
ta,s state were liked upon the many
Other rs}15z4ili5 Nhica bore as honor
able part in he earlier ears OF the war
a Rny band OF the thousands which
carried the glorious banner to the great
victory OF the Civil war. The subsequent
history of the shattered handful of men
IS no returned at the close of the war has
seemed TO fail OF the mention and notice
OF he public press OF the state which has
been accorded to many other organiza-
tions.
The several companies OF the thirty
first regiment OF infantry from Maine were
mustered into the field March %, 1861,
for three years or during the war. Col.
Thomas Hight, a graduate from West
Point, was in command. Major General
A. +. Burnside, commander OF the ninth
army corps, came to the state capital to
urge the speedy formal on OF the organi-
cations then being recruited in Maine,
and desired that they be attached to his
{
3lst and the 32nd, with the 9TH Maine
battery OF artillery we're sent forward as
rapidly as possible and became integral
parts OF has corps. The first named or
ganization left the state on the 18TH day
OF April, 1861, under the command of
Lieut.. Col Thomas Hight on their way
to join their fortunes with the immense
numbers then being marshaled in
eastern Virginia to prepare for the death
grapple with the formidable rebellion
/ which had then continued more than
I three dismal years.
| This regiment had been recruited as a
| veteran regiment into which had come
many commissioned and noncommis-
| stoned officers who had seen previous ser
/ vice in other organizations at the front,
| But many OF the recruits were such men
/ and boys as had failed to enlist before be-
cause OF limitation in age or for reasons
/ beyond their control. From school or
farm or country store these halt-grown
| boys hurried to take some honorab bic part
/ in The war. and not a few old men had
employed the barbe. 3 art TO change tne
/ color Of the sus picious gray hairs that
! betrayed their age 10 he scrutinizing eye
| OF tie surgeons.
| AT a reunion OF the regiment held more
| than thirty years after the close OF the
war, Surgeon r. r, Kicker, late OF Lewis
| ton, said to one after another of grouI
Of suspiciously young-looking men who
welcomed him: ''Are you one of those
lads who lied to me about his age in Au-
| gusia the first time you saw ne?" Ano
they owned up to the patrio.Ic lies tolc
| years before in order to don the army
| blue. The writer ofticiated at the funeral
of one OF his regimentai comrades, then
eighty-two years old, who must have beef
more than fitty-two at the date OF his ser
vice at the front.
The regiment had never been upon the
color line as whole at any enc dres'