This data originates from: Maine at Gettysburg, Report of Maine Commissioners, prepared by The Executive Committee, 1898, for and in behalf of the State of Maine, by Charles Hamlin, Greenlief T. Stevens and George W. Verrill, of the Maine Gettysburg Commissioners' Executive Committee. SIXTEENTH MAINE REGIMENT, FIRST BRIGADE, SECOND DIVISION, FIRST ARMY CORPS, AT THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG FROM 10 to 11:30 o'clock on the forenoon of this first day of July, while Hall's Second Maine Battery was having its perilous experience at its position north of the Chambersburg Pike, the battle was sustained by Wadsworth's division alone. Meredith's brigade, extending between the Hagerstown Road and the Chambersburg Pike, had succeeded in worsting the Confederate brigade of General Archer, which had utterly failed to establish itself on the eastern bank of Willoughby Run, capturing Archer with part of his command. North of the Chambersburg Pike the fortunes of the forenoon had been less favorable. Hall's battery had been left unsupported and in great peril by the breaking of the line which should have held back Davis' Confederate brigade. But prompt action had checked Davis and re-established the Union line, so that at 11.30 Wadsworth's men were still holding the line which they had received from Buford in the mornings At this hour the two other divisions of the First Corps, under Generals Rowley and Robinson, arrived from Emmitsburg. General Rowley's men were distributed to strengthen the line already formed. General Robinson's division took position in reserve around the seminary, fortifying itself with hastily-dug trenches. With this division, in General Paul's brigade, was the Sixteenth Maine Regiment, under Col. Charles W Tilden. Men and officers, the regiment numbered about two hundred and seventy-five, remaining with the colors, of one thousand strong who left Maine on the 19th of August, 1862. In the preceding campaigns of the army of the Potomac the regiment had seen arduous service; but it had never made a march so difficult as the march up to Gettysburg. From White Oak Church, in Virginia, whence it had moved on the 12th of June, the regiment had marched by way of Bealeton Station, Bristoe Station, and Centreville Heights to Middletown, Md., where it was assigned to picket duty on the afternoon of June 27th. The army was hurrying northward in pursuit of Lee. On the afternoon of the twenty-eighth the Sixteenth was ordered on the hardest forced march they had ever made. As the column pressed northward through the long hours of a damp and foggy night, many of the men became so exhausted that they would fall to the ground the instant the word was given for a brief halt. At about 2 a. m. of the twenty-ninth it reached Frederick City, where it rejoined the brigade. Resuming the forced march at 5 o'clock a. m., it pushed on all day, passing through Emmitsburg at 6 p. m., and camped near the town. Every man knew that some great action was pending. As they had moved northward rumors „caine through every mountain gap that in the valley beyond Lee was marching towards Harrisburg and the north. In twenty-five hours the regiment had marched forty miles, encumbered with all the arms and accoutrements of the soldier, and over muddy roads crowded with the columns of the division. More fortunate than several other Maine regiments which moved in the forced marches of the great concentration at Gettysburg, the Sixteenth was allowed a breathing space before plunging into battle. Encamping at Emmitsburg during the night of June 29th, it marched on the next morning only two miles to Marsh Run on the road to Gettysburg. There it encamped during the day and night of June 30th. On the morning of July 1st the regiment marched towards Gettysburg. Arriving at the seminary, which is upon a slight ridge, the Sixteenth occupied the oak-covered campus and there threw up breast works about west-southwest. Reynolds had been killed and Doubleday was in charge of the field at that front ; three-fourths of a mile westward, down by the banks of Willoughby Run, the men of Wadsworth's and Rowley's divisions were engaged with the Confederates of Heth's division. At the same time heavy Confederate reinforcements were moving down by the northern roads, changing all the conditions of the battle and forcing the commander of the First Corps to summon all his reserves to the front. About 1 o'clock p. m. the Sixteenth received the order to go into battle. At this time the conditions of the battle had changed greatly from what they were when studied last in connection with the exploits of the Second Maine Battery. The First Corps had been reinforced by the Eleventh Corps under General Howard, who had assumed command of the field by right of seniority. But the Confederates had at the same time received still heavier reinforcements, which were appearing not only from the westward along the Chambersburg Pike, but also from the north. Along the Mummasburg and Harrisburg roads the heads of columns of Ewell's corps, which had been recalled in haste from Harrisburg, were approaching, threatening the First Corps line in right flank and rear. The Eleventh Corps were hurried into position between the Mummasburg Road and the Harrisburg Road to meet Ewell's men, while the First Corps continued to face Hill on the west, its line extending from the Hagerstown Road across the Chambersburg Pike to the Mummasburg Road. The extreme right of this line was formed by Baxter's brigade of Robinson's division, which had been taken from the reserve at the seminary. Baxter had formed on the right of Cutler's men, who were fighting like heroes in nearly the same place where they had met their reverse of the morning. Baxter was at once actively engaged with the right of Rodes' division of Ewell's corps. Soon it became necessary to relieve him, and Paul's brigade, which was still in reserve at the seminary, was sent. The Sixteenth, with the brigade, responded to the order at once. The regiment moved towards the northwest, over the ridge upon which the seminary stands, and, going about a quarter of a mile, advanced on the west side of the ridge in full view of the enemy. It was about one o'clock. The regiment at once deployed, its left facing nearly west while its right was swerved to meet a fire from a Confederate battery posted on Oak Hill to the northwest. The two hundred and seventy-five officers and men of the Sixteenth extended a battle line about four hundred and fifty feet, and were at once made the target of a deadly fire from the enemy. The Colonel's horse was shot from under him, Captain Whitehouse of Company K was killed instantly, Captain Waldron of Company I was wounded, and the rank and file suffered severely For three hours, as nearly as hours could be measured in such a conflict (a), this battle was maintained with the superior forces which the Confederate General Rodes launched against this portion of the First Corps line. Finally a bayonet charge, gallantly participated in by the Sixteenth, cleared the Confederates from the immediate front of this part of the line. This success was merely incidental and temporary, however. The battle of the afternoon had been going sadly against the 16,500 men of the First and Eleventh corps, who were contending against at least 25,000 Confederates ; and about halfpast three o'clock the Eleventh Corps line was broken and swept back to the town in disorder. This fatal disaster left the rear of the First Corps line exposed ; and that portion of it north of the Chambersburg Pike was in immediate jeopardy. Paul's brigade, being upon the extreme right of this line, was most exposed to the overwhelming assaults launched by Ewell upon the staggering remnant of the First Corps. Already the First Corps had prolonged its gallant resistance beyond the limit of prudence ; and it could be saved from destruction only by heroic sacrifices. It fell to the lot of the Sixteenth Maine to make one of these sacrifices. In the last moments of the defense an aide of General Robinson rode up to the regiment bearing an order for it to move to the right along the ridge and take position by the Mummasburg Road. Immediately General Robinson himself rode up and repeated the order. The Sixteenth Maine was to advance alone when brigades and divisions, even two army corps, were retiring! Colonel Tilden stated to General Robinson the strength of the enemy and expressed the opinion, which was the opinion of every beholder, that it would be impossible to hold the position. "Take the position and hold it at any cost," was the answer of (a) This is the length of time recorded on the monument. It corresponds with General Tilden's recollection. Maj. S. C. Belcher judged the time to be two hours and a half. The reports of general officers show that neither of these estimates is far out of the way. General Robinson (a). "You know what that means," was the comment of the Maine Colonel as he turned to his brother officers and gave the command to move forward. It was at the crisis of this battle of July 1st when the Sixteenth Maine advanced. The lines of the First Corps, until now held with desperate tenacity, were crumbling before the crushing weight of superior numbers. Brigades were shrinking into regiments and regiments were withering into companies. It was an hour when bands of brave men did heroic things which have been obscured in history by the turmoils and confusion of the general agony of the army (b) MARKER OF SIXTEENTH MAINE REGIMENT. A massive granite marker, designating the final position of the Sixteenth Maine Regiment, stands near the Mummasburg Road and bears the following inscription: Position Held July 1, 1863, AT 4 o'clock p. m., by the 16th Maine Infantry, 1st Brig. 2nd Div 1st Corps, while the rest of the division was retiring, the regiment having moved from the position at the left where its monument stands, under orders to hold this position at any cost. It lost on this field, killed 11, wounded 62, captured 159 out of 275 engaged. (a) The exact expression of General Robinson in giving this remarkable order was "at any cost," as is well remembered by General Tilden, who received it. (b) General Paul, commander of the brigade, was shot through both eyes, so no adequate report of the part of his brigade was ever made. Neither the division commander nor the corps commander mentioned this action of the Sixteenth. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when the Sixteenth Maine was ordered to advance (a) It obeyed at once, and took position in line of battle facing the Mummasburg Road. On the left and rear of its position the long lines of Hill's brigades, so often repulsed during the day, were advancing for their final and successful effort, reinforced by the fresh one of Raniseur. And as the soldiers of the Sixteenth anxiously scanned the low ground which stretches for a mile north and east of the Mummasburg Road, they saw a heavy column of Ewell's infantry move across their front to deploy against them. But when they turned from the spectacle of the hosts advancing against them and looked anxiously to the rear, whence support and encouragement should be expected, they saw only the retiring columns of their companions in arms. It is remembered to the lasting glory of the officers and enlisted men of the Sixteenth that in this bitter moment not one of them wavered. The two Confederate lines were approaching steadily, that from the west cutting off their line of retreat, that from the north and east about to strike them in front. The volleys of the little regiment detained Ewell's line not long. In a short time, perhaps twenty minutes—no one measured time then—the enemy were upon them in irresistible force. As Ewell's line came within close range, the regiment retired gradually along the ridge until it reached the railroad cut and grade. In this last stand the Sixteenth's forlorn hope ended with a deed worthy of remembrance among the gallant deeds crowded so thickly into this day of battle. The two long lines of gray were closing upon the handful of men from Maine. The annihilation of the regiment as an organization seemed inevitable and immediate. Yet in that moment of the most trying experience that can come to any soldiers, the men of the Sixteenth performed an act which may convey to this generation some of the spirit animating the volunteers who repelled Lee's invasion of 1863. The two flags of the regiment, the stars and stripes (a) General Robinson says in his report that his division withdrew about five o'clock. General Meade, in his report, says that General Howard, who commanded the field in the afternoon, gave the order for the First Corps to retire about four o'clock and the flag of Maine, the old pine tree on the golden shield in the field of blue, were taken from their staves, torn into pieces and secreted about the persons of the officers and men. These fragments were carried through Southern prisons and finally home to Maine, where they are still treasured as precious relics more than a quarter of a century after Gettysburg. The two Confederate battle lines, closing together, struck the regiment simultaneously. Ewell's men appeared upon the north side of the cut and Hill's upon the south side so nearly at the same time that both lines, with levelled muskets, claimed the prisoners. Colonel Tilden fell to Ewell's share (a). In all, twelve officers and ninety-two enlisted men, nearly the entire regiment as it had survived the day, were captured. A few men, thirty-five in all, and four officers succeeded in evading the Confederates and made their way to the rest of the army on Cemetery Hill (b) . The thin lines of the weary soldiers of the First Corps had already filed off the field which they had contested so long and so gallantly, and where they had left nearly four thousand of their comrades dead or wounded. Of the two hundred and seventy-five men and officers who composed the Sixteenth Maine in the morning, less than forty represented the regiment in the ranks of the First Corps on Cemetery Hill, where it was arrayed in line of battle in the evening. This remnant of the regiment was in action July 2d under command of Capt. Daniel Marston. In the movements on this day, one officer and seven enlisted men were wounded. July 4th Major A. D. Leavitt succeeded in rejoining the regiment and it was afterwards led back to Virginia by Lieut. Col. A. B. Farnham, who was absent sick during the battle (c) (a) A tall skirmisher from Alabama, seeing Colonel Tilden standing with his sword drawn, drew up his musket and, at a distance of not over one hundred feet, shouted: "Throw down that sword or I will blow your brains out." Sticking his sword into the ground, Colonel Tilden passed to the rear, a prisoner. He was taken South to Libby Prison and there became one of the daring band who escaped through the famous tunnel. (b) Thirty-six men of this Regiment, previously detailed into the Second Maine Battery, served with that battery this day. (c) The Sixteenth Maine is among the "three hundred fighting regiments" enumerated by Fox in his statistics of Regimental Losses in the Civil War. Those were the regiments that during their term of service suffered a loss of killed in battle or died from wounds of 130 or more. INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE AND REMARKS THEREON BY ADJUTANT ABNER R. SMALL, LATE MAJOR OF THE SIXTEENTH MAINE REGIMENT. By command of General Robinson, the First Brigade hastily threw up a redoubt of earth and fence rails, in a circular form, just in front of the seminary. About one o'clock rang out the command : " Fall in ! Forward Sixteenth ! " " Good-by, Adjutant, this is my last fight," cried Captain Whitehouse. He turned, repeated the command to his company, and I never saw him afterward. We double-quicked to the right, and took position behind a rail fence, in a piece of woods and nearly parallel with the Chambersburg Pike, and were at once engaged with the enemy, who were also in rear of a fence and some two hundred yards distant. Corporal Yeaton, of the color guard, was the first man killed. While cautioning his men to keep cool and aim low, Captain Waldron, of Company I, was struck, a ball entering just back of the jugular vein and penetrating to the lung. Colonel Tilden, the only mounted regimental officer in the brigade, had his horse shot from under him. Now came the order to charge bayonets. Color-sergeant Mower was the first to jump the fence, and the regiment followed with a ringing cheer, and in the face of a galling fire went double-quick, scattering the rebel line pell-mell to the rear into the woods. Our boys would have followed them, but were recalled, and moved with the division still further to the right, fighting until overpowered by numbers pressing upon our right flank. Now two frowning war clouds were rolling upon the First Corps with thunders and lightnings. Shot and shell opened great gaps ; musket balls cut like comb-teeth ; and victorious rebel cheers gave irresistible impetus to their charging columns. When our whole force was falling back it was necessary to save as much of the Second Division as possible. General Robinson rode up to Colonel Tilden. "Advance and hold that hill at any cost," was the order of the Division commander. "Boys you know what that means," shouted Colonel Tilden. It meant the saving of the rest of the division. It meant death to many, and a captivity worse than death to the survivors of that little band of already exhausted troops, forced by an imperative order to the foot of a sacrificial altar. There was no thought of wavering, but with compressed lips and tense nerves these manly boys silently obeyed their loved commander. They looked to him for inspiration ; they prayed to God for support, as they received the command "About face ! Forward Sixteenth !" The regiment advanced, took position behind the stone wall, and broke the right wing to the right, parallel to the Mummasburg Road, the color company holding the apex,—the identical spot where the 88th Penn. have since placed a tablet. They held the position bravely against fearful odds. Every moment was precious to the retiring division, more than precious to the troops going into position on Cemetery Hill. The deep, hoarse growl of the battle storm grew into a lion-like roar. The rebels fired upon us from all sides,—from behind the wall, from the fences, from the Mummasburg Road. They swarmed down upon us, they engulfed us, and swept away the last semblance of organization which marked us as a separate command. To fight longer wras useless, was wicked. For this little battalion of heroes, hemmed in by thousands of rebels, there was no succor, no hope. Summoned to surrender, Colonel Tilden plunged his sword into the ground and broke it short off at the hilt, and directed the destruction of the colors. A rebel officer sprang to seize the flag, when the men, once more and for the last time, closed around the priceless emblems, and in a moment of fury rent the staves in twain and threw the pieces at the officer's feet. Eager hands from every direction seized the banners and tore them piece by piece beyond reclaim or recognition,—but now to be held doubly dear. To-day, all over Maine, can be found in albums and frames and breastpocket- books gold stars and shreds of silk, cherished mementos of that heroic and awful hour. And so the Sixteenth Maine was the last regiment that left the extreme front on the 1st of July, —if four officers and thirtr-six men can lie called a regiment. 48 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. What if the enemy took our swords, seized our guns, and confiscated our persons with whatever they bore? They left our honor untarnished and in our hearts a consciousness of duty faithfully done, too dearly testified by the bleeding and broken forms stretched upon the crimson field. The contest was almost absurd in its great one-sided pressure. We were crushed as between the upper and nether millstones of fate, but not humiliated. General Kobinson's order made of the Sixteenth Maine a forlorn hope, as it were. The irresistible force of circumstances dashed the hope to atoms, but not until after the Second Division of the First Army Corps was saved. On the 2d of July, Ewell occupied the town, posting his line within half a mile of the cemetery. General Newton, assigned to command of the First Corps, placed it in reserve in rear of the cemetery, and within thirty minutes' march of any part of the Union line. Early in the morning the brigade was reorganized, Col. Richard Coulter commanding, with Adjt. A. E. Small detailed as acting Assistant Adjutant-General. The regiment under Captain Marston changed position from time to time as ordered, and with the brigade was ordered to the left centre of our general line late in the afternoon (a). While it was moving by the right flank past General Meade's headquarters, a rebel shell exploded in the regiment, severely wounding Lieut. Fred H. Beecher and seven enlisted men. Moving eight hundred yards, the command was given, " By the right flank ! March ! " and in line of battle the brigade dashed on through the smoke, over the bowlders, but only to find that the enemy had already been driven back. In terrible suspense, on the 3d of July, moments crept by until one o'clock, when the stillness of the air was suddenly broken by a signal gun. Instantly one hundred and fifty guns were discharged as if by electricity, answered on the Union side by about one hundred more, and tons of metal parted the air, which closed with a roar, making acres of earth groan and tremble. The hills and the huge bowlders take up the sound (a) Colonel Coulter, commanding the brigade on July 2d, speaks of this movement as occurring about seven o'clock in the evening. Vide his Official Report Rebellion Records, Serial No. 43, p. 294. and hurl it back, to add its broken tones to the long roll of sound that strikes upon ears thirty miles away For two hours the air was filled with a horrible concordance of sounds. The air, thick with sulphurous vapor and smoke, through which came the sharp cry of agony, the hoarse command, and the screaming shell, almost suffocated those supporting the batteries. Guns are dismounted and rest their metallic weight upon quivering flesh. Caissons explode, and wheels and boxes strew the ground in every direction. Horses by the score are blown down by the terrible hurricane and lie moaning in agony almost human in its expression. One battery at our immediate front lost forty horses in twenty minutes. In the vicinity of Meade's headquarters shells exploded at the rate of sixty per minute. Solid shot would strike the ground in front, cover a battalion with sand and dirt, ricochet, and demon-like go plunging through the ranks of massed men in the rear. For a mile or more a lurid flame of fire streams out over the heads of our men in long jets, as if to follow the tons of metal thrown through the murky air, which parts to receive it and shudders as if tortured by screaming furies. Our artillery ammunition was reduced to a few rounds, and there came a signal from Little Round Top that the enemy was rapidly massing for a charge behind the dense smoke which afforded them a screen. Notwithstanding our infantry would become more exposed if our batteries were silent, the order was issued and the firing ceased. The rebels jumped at conclusions and sent up a wild yell. We had heard it too often to lose heart or courage ; but nerves were at their extreme tension as we watched the splendid lines of Confederate infantry which stretched in our front, as if for parade ; and a second and yet in the rear a third debouch from the woods into view Such a sight is given only once in a life-time, and once seen never to be forgotten. Pickett's division leads the front on the right with Pettigrew's on the left. In their rear moved Anderson's and Trimble's commands ; the right was covered by Pern' and Wilcox, and the left by McGowan and Thomas. Down the slope into the valley they come; and now it is our turn, and from the black muzzles of more than eighty cannon pour round 50 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. shot, spherical case and canister, in an incessant torrent which cuts great swaths of living grain. Men go down by scores, but others fill the gaps, and the undaunted tide sweeps on in perfect order fairly across the Emmitsburg Road, when from behind the stone-wall the Union line pours in a shower of hissing bullets, carrying death and destruction to those brave but mistaken men. They go down like jackstraws ; they lie in windrows. With a desperation born of madness, they force their way through a shower of leaden hail. Hot with passion born of war, stained and blinded with blood, the living fail to see the terrible harvest of death in their rear, and, utterly reckless of personal results, they press on and on, and with a yell of victory plant their tattered flags of rebellion upon the Union stone-wall. They turn to beckon on the next line. The next line ! Where is it ? Exultation is drowned in despair and defeat, for from both flanks the Union boys are giving a deadly fire, while shot and shell enfilade their rear. Thousands fall to the ground and hold up their hands in token of surrender, and others flee through the storm of bullets, shell and canister that reaches the Emmitsburg Road. A brave man can but pity the victims of such a terrible disappointment. Looking down upon all this, I could see, shorn of all wordy description, simply a square mile of tophet. The remnant of the Sixteenth is sadly depressed. The loved colonel on his way to Richmond, to the prison-pens of the South; our valued surgeon, Alexander, wounded and a prisoner ; all the line officers but four either killed, wounded, or missing, and a fearful list of casualties among the men. We thought of the brave fellows started on a pilgrimage worse than death. There is said to be a time in every man's life when he learns to cry I believe many of us graduated in this accomplishment that night. While we were in the slough of despond, and trying to assist as skirmishers in the front line, Major Leavitt joined the regiment and assumed command at ten o'clock p. m. The heavy rain pressing down our spirits could not dampen our joy at his coming. From "Benny" Worth, who escaped from the enemy's hands, we learned that Corporal Bradford with others rendered timely aid to many of the wounded inside the rebel lines. He found Captain Lowell, of Company D, where he fell mortally wounded, a short distance from the Mummasburg Road and near the stone-wall. Although conscious, he was speechless. He was carried to a vacant room in the seminary on the first floor. Before Bradford could find a surgeon, he with others was marched to the rear some two miles. Note on the foregoing report of casualties. The foregoing list shows the following totals : Killed: officers, 2; men, 19; total, 21. Wounded: officers, 8; men, 45; total, 53. Prisoners and missing : officers, 9; men, 88; total, 97. Missing, never heard from : 5 men. Total loss, 176. Seven of the wounded were captured. This differs widely from the inscription upon the monument and official report of casualties made shortly after the battle. The latter gives the losses as follows : Killed, 9 ; wounded, 59 ; captured, 164. Total loss, 232. This discrepancy is partly explained by the following considerations : 1. The official report was based naturally on the results of the roll-call of the regiment after the disaster of the day on the evening of July 1st. It is undoubted that many then properly reported as prisoners or missing contrived to escape or find their way back on the next and following days ; and probable that many who were both wounded and captured were originally placed in both lists. 2. As to the discrepancies in the lists of killed and wounded, it is to be said that many at first reported wounded proved to be mortally wounded, and when these died soon after, they are now properly placed on the lists of the killed, and deducted, of course, from the wounded. 3. There is a considerable number hitherto borne on the rolls of the Adjutant-General of Maine, and also of the Adjutant- General of the U. S. Army, as missing in action, who were seen in the line of battle bearing themselves bravely, but not accounted for at its close. Some in the above list who were so seen and who have never been heard from since, now thirty-three years, have been placed above in a separate list, and several others are almost as clearly entitled to be so discriminated. In truth, these might properly and with a high degree of probable truth be borne on the lists of the killed. We cannot refrain from expressing the feeling that such a rule should be applied by authority of Congress to all cases of faithful and honorable record where men seen in their place in a disastrous battle of our war for the Union, and never heard from asrain, should no longer have their honorable title clouded by so ambiguous a final report as "missing." HISTORICAL SKETCH.BY LIEUTENANT FRANCIS WIGGIN. The Sixteenth Regiment of Infantry for three years' service was authorized by a call from the War Department of May 21, 1862, for the enrolment of fifty thousand troops to be drilled and held in reserve, to be drawn upon as needed. At that time it was supposed by those in authority, and by people generally, that the six hundred thousand soldiers in the field would be amply sufficient for the putting down of the Rebellion. The seven days' battles in the vicinity of Richmond, and the falling back of McClellan's army to Harrison Landing, undeceived the country as to the magnitude of the task on hand, and a call for three hundred thousand additional troops was issued, the fifty thousand under the call of May 21st being included in the latter call. Although recruiting for the regiment commenced in May, it was not till August 13th that the complement was full. The regiment on that date consisted of 960 enlisted men and 39 commissioned officers. The organization was as follows : FIELD, STAFF, AND NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Colonel, Asa W. Wildes, Skowhegan. Lieutenant-Colonel, Charles W. Tilden, Castine. Major, Augustus B. Farnham, Bangor. Adjutant, Abner R. Small, Waterville. Quartermaster, Isaac N. Tucker, Gardiner. Surgeon, Charles Alexander, Farmington. Assistant Surgeon, Joseph B. Baxter, Gorham. Chaplain, George Bullen, Skowhegan. Sergeant-Major, Francis A. Wildes, Skowhegan. Quartermaster-Sergeant, George W Brown, Augusta. Commissary-Sergeant, Charles H. Parlin, Skowhegan. Hospital Steward, William W. Eaton, Brunswick. Drum-Major, William H. Palmer, Calais. COMPANY OFFICERS. Co. A. Captain, Charles A. Williams, Skowhegan. First Lieutenant, S. Forrest Robinson, Skowhegan. Second Lieutenant, Isaac A. Pennell, New Portland. Co. B. Captain, Charles K. Hutchins, Augusta. First Lieutenant, Eleazer W. Atwood, Gardiner. Second Lieutenant, George W Edwards, Gorham. Co. C. Captain, Daniel Marston, Phillips. First Lieutenant, Hovey C. Austin, Presque Isle. Second Lieutenant, Marshall S. Smith, East Livermore. Co. D. Captain, Moses W Rand, Waterford. First Lieutenant, Humphrey E. Eustis, Dixfield. Second Lieutenant, Henry P. Herrick, North Yarmouth. Co. E. Captain, Arch D. Leavitt, Turner. First Lieutenant, William E. Brooks, Skowhegan. Second Lieutenant, William A. Stevens, Waterville. Co. F. Captain, Thomas E. Wentworth, Gorham. First Lieutenant, Oliver H. Lowell, Gorham. Second Lieutenant, George A. Deering, Saco. Co. G. Captain, S. Clifford Belcher, Farmington. First Lieutenant, Joseph H. Malbon, Skowhegan. Second Lieutenant, Isaac H. Thompson, Anson. Co. H. Captain, John Ayer, Bangor. First Lieutenant, Ira S. Libby, Limerick. Second Lieutenant, Israel H. Washburn, Orono. Co. I. Captain, William H. Waldron, Lewiston. First Lieutenant, William Bray, Turner. Second Lieutenant, Charles A. Garcelon, Lewiston. Co. K. Captain, Stephen C. Whitehouse, Newcastle. First Lieutenant, Augustus T. Somerby, Ellsworth. Second Lieutenant, Augustus C. Peters, Bluehill. Company A was raised in Somerset and Kennebec counties ; Company B in Kennebec county ; Company C in Franklin and Oxford counties ; Company D in Oxford and Cumberland counties ; Company E in Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Penobscot counties ; Company F in York and Cumberland counties ; Company Gr in Somerset and Franklin counties ; Company H in Waldo and Penobscot counties ; Company I in Kennebec and Androscoggin counties ; Company K in Hancock and Lincoln counties ; and men from all parts of the state were scattered throughout the companies. The regiment was mustered into United States service at Augusta, August 14, 1862. August 19th it started for Washington, where it arrived on the 21st, and on the 22d it marched across Long Bridge to Arlington Heights. Here the several companies were distributed among the forts on the Heights, for the purpose of being drilled in heavy artillery practice, under the instruction of the officers and sergeants of the 14th Mass. Three weeks were spent here, and the men were fast acquiring the bearing and skill of soldiers, when the defeat of General Pope's army at the Second Bull Pun battle, and the invasion of Maryland by General Lee, called every available regiment to the field. On September 6th at eleven p.m. came the order to rendezvous at Fort Tillinghast, leaving tents, knapsacks and overcoats behind, whence we took up the march towards the South Mountain in Maryland, under command of Colonel "Wildes, who shortly afterward gave over the command to Lieutenant-Colonel Tilden, who remained at the head of the regiment and was promoted Colonel, January 8, 1863, Colonel Wildes having resigned. On September 9th the regiment was assigned to Hartsuff's brigade, Kicketts' division, Hooker's corps. The Sixteenth did not participate in the battle of Antietam, but marched over the battlefield the next day after the conflict, before the dead had been buried, and went into camp near Sharpsburg. The men had no shelter-tents ; knapsacks and overcoats had been left at Arlington Heights and were now stored in Washington. The men were exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather by night and by day, with only such protection as could be made from boughs and fence rails. The services of many a noble and patriotic soldier were lost to the country by reason of the two months' severe and unnecessary exposure to which they were subjected. The army was at last put in motion for Virginia. To guard against cold, rain, sleet and snow we were accustomed to wrap our blankets around our shoulders ; and our brother soldiers in other regiments, disregarding our pitiable condition, jeered at us and called us the "Blanket Brigade." The men of this regiment were of that heroic temper which bears insult in silence. They resolved that when the proper time came they would show the army and the country of what stuff they were made. But in this pitiful plight they marched from Sharpsburg to Rappahannock Station, and from that place to Brooke's Station near Fredericksburg, where on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1862, they received their knapsacks and overcoats from Washington. Never had men more cause for thankfulness than the patient, shivering men of the Sixteenth. Col. Adrian R. Root, of the 94th N. Y., had then the command of the brigade to which the Sixteenth had lately been assigned, the other regiments being the 94th and 104th N. Y. and the 107th Penn. The battle of Fredericksburg, December 12-13, 1862, was a disastrous and overwhelming defeat for the Union army; but there never was a battle where greater bravery was shown than by the men of the North at Fredericksburg. The Sixth teenth Maine was in General Franklin's grand division, on the left of the Union position. At about two o'clock p. m. the brigade was ordered into action. The regiment numbered at this time 417 guns. The enemy were posted behind the Fredericksburg and Eichmond railroad, which they were using for a breastwork. Under cover of a ridge our brigade removed knapsacks and fixed bayonets. It then advanced steadily over the ridge and at the order, " Double quick ! Charge ! " the men went forward with a cheer, under a terrific and destructive fire, but with no wavering. The Sixteenth remembers the taunts and jeers of the last three months and feels that its opportunity has come. Ahead of all the others it rushes over the railroad embankment and springs down upon an astonished and terrified line of battle. The rebels throw down their arms and give themselves up. Over two hundred prisoners are taken and sent to the rear. Then the Sixteenth advanced to the edge of the woods and fired sixty rounds of ammunition at a second line of battle, and would have charged a second time if it had not been restrained. Its loss in this battle in killed, wounded and missing was two hundred and thirty-one (a)—more than one-half the number engaged. The missing were mostly wounded and prisoners. The losses in the regiment amounted to one-half the losses in the whole brigade. Colonel Root, the brigade commander, in his official report spoke in the highest terms of the conduct of the officers and men of the Sixteenth in this battle. He further says : " Previous to the action thirty-eight men of the regiment had volunteered to do duty with Hall's battery, and I am assured by Captain Hall that their conduct was creditable in the highest degree." The injustice of the past was overcome ; the voice of insult and reproach was forever silenced ; the term "Blanket Brigad " was never heard again. The monotony of camp life in winter quarters near Belle Plain was broken once by a forward movement of the army in what is known among soldiers as the "Mud March" of January 19-23, 1863, in which the severe experiences of cold, wet, mud and hunger were intensified by the sensation of a complete failure in our attempt. (a) See nominal list in 1862, A. G. R. Maine, page 877. On April 29th the regiment took its place in the movements around Chancellorsville. During this battle Adjutant A. R. Small of the Sixteenth made a most daring and successful reconnaissance on the right of our army, and brought back important information concerning the withdrawal of the rebel forces and their movement toward Fredericksburg. The losses of the Sixteenth in this battle had not been great, but the results of exposure and fatigue had been fearful, and the whole army was disgusted at the result of a campaign that was so well begun. At the opening of the Gettysburg campaign the 94th and 104th N. Y., the 107th Penn., the 13th Mass., and the Sixteenth Maine constituted the first brigade of the second division, First corps. On the morning of June 12th tents were struck and the regiment began its long march northward, with 281 men and 32 officers. June 15th it reached Centreville ; on the 19th Guilford, where it remained in camp till the 23d. The march from Fredericksburg had been most arduous ; the temperature 90 degrees above zero every day, and the terrors of sunstroke added to the fatigue and thirst. On the 29th of June our corps reached Emmitsburg. On the morning of July 1st we were suddenly marched in the direction of Gettysburg, the sound of cannonading quickening every step until the brigade was put into position near the seminary. Not long afterward it was ordered to "the front," where it commenced its action by a bayonet charge executed in such fashion as to drive the enemy entirely from their position. The brilliant but terrible chapter of the part of the Sixteenth in the battle of Gettysburg need not be recounted here, as it is set forth, faithfully and fully, in a preceding account. It is sufficient to say that its heroism and devotion make a conspicuous instance of service and suffering, which history has not failed to note. The little remnant—thirtv-cight men and four officers— which managed to escape the terrible catastrophe of the afternoon of July 1st made its stand with its division on Cemetery Hill and rendered such service as it could in the second and third davs' battle. 72 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. The regiment was for a time almost unrecognizable as such. The Colonel and most of the officers were prisoners in the hands of the enemy ; its Adjutant was detached as acting assistant adjutant-general of the brigade, and Major Leavitt exerted himself to bring together the broken fragments of the regiment as fast as circumstances would allow. On July 18th the First corps recrossed the Potomac and went into camp near Waterford, Va. By a special order from corps headquarters a detail from the regiment was ordered to proceed to Maine, for the purpose of securing recruits and drafted men to fill up its depleted ranks. Men were now returning from prison and from hospitals, and with the 168 drafted men now assigned, the regiment began to assume a respectable appearance as to size. Lieutenant-Colonel Farnham had returned from severe illness at hospital and assumed command, and the regiment was ready for action early in September. It participated in all the peculiar movements, known among soldiers as the " Culpeper and Centreville Express," over the old battlefields about Bull Run. On the 20th of November the regiment numbered 650 men, and with its two new stands of colors sent by friends in Maine it had an appearance worthy of its early days and a heart proud of its later fame. In the Mine Run campaign the regiment had something of its earlier experience. Exposure, fatigue and hunger, sowing more seeds of disease and death, began their terrible and long effect. But the prudence of General Meade doubtless saved us another great slaughter, even more disastrous than Fredericksburg. On December 3d the regiment went into winter quarters at Kelly's Ford. In March, 1864, changes took place in the organization of the army. The First corps, to which the Sixteenth had been attached, was absorbed into the Fifth corps, our division constituting its Second division, under General Robinson. March 28th Colonel Tilden returned to the regiment, having boldly and skilfully escaped from Libby Prison through the famous Rose Tunnel. On the day following, the men of the Sixteenth presented to him the magnificent black horse which he rode during the remainder of the war and brought home with him when the regiment went out of service. On May 4, 1864, commenced the campaign of the Wilderness. The regiment was actively engaged in the three battles ; its losses, however, were comparatively small. But in a desperate charge on the 8th of May it lost several of its officers and nearly a hundred men. In the battle of Laurel Hill at Spotsylvania, on the tenth, the regiment took a prominent part and lost four officers and fifty men in a charge upon the enemy's works. On the twelfth charged the enemy's works, but without success. No soldiers in the world could have carried those tiers of earthworks, yet our division was hurled against them again and again. Major Leavitt was mortally wounded and every company suffered great loss. From May 5th to the 21st the regiment had lost nineteen men and two officers killed or mortally wounded ; one hundred and sixteen men and two officers wounded, and thirty-eight men and two officers missing,—doubtless taken prisoners. On May 23d the regiment took part in the brilliant engagement on the North Anna River, where the enemy were repulsed with great loss. In the severe battle of Bethesda Church— which was our part in the famous Cold Harbor battle—the regiment lost four men killed and fourteen wounded. On the 8th of June our brigade was transferred to the Third division of the Fifth corps, and took part in the movements and engagements about the Chickahominy River. On the 16th the brigade crossed the James River and moved up toward the outer defenses of Petersburg. It had part in the severe actions of June 17th and 18th ; in the latter the Fifth corps by desperate assault and with great loss gained a commanding advanced position across the Norfolk railroad, which was afterwards known among our soldiers as "Fort Hell." Thereafter the regiment shared the fortunes of the Fifth corps in the entrenchments in front of Petersburg and the various operations upon the enemy's right flank. It participated in the aggressive movement of the First corps, August 18th, to extend our lines to the left beyond the Weldon railroad. The enemy was on the alert, taking advantage of every disjunction of our troops in the formations for battle. Severe fighting occurred that day and the next, in a rather disconnected way but generally with an enemy upon one flank or the other. The Corps however planted itself firmly and for good astride the railroad. In repelling a front and flank attack too long on the 19th the Sixteenth, endeavoring to retire, found itself surrounded, and lost heavily. During the enterprise it lost two men killed, twenty-eight wounded, and a hundred and fifteen prisoners. Among these prisoners were Colonel Tilden, Adjutant Small, Captains Conley and Lord, Lieutenants Broughton, Fitch, Chipman and Davies. Colonel Tilden, however, wouldn't stay captured and Lieutenant Davies as well, although they were taken to Petersburg and started for Richmond. They managed at the risk of their lives to elude their guards and coolly return to the front with Confederates on all sides. Watching their opportunity they walked over into their own brigade picket line on the twenty-second. The regiment had now been assigned to the Second brigade, under General Baxter. The regiment was stationed in Fort Wadsworth and there remained until December 5th. December 7th it took up the march with the Fifth corps to destroy the Weldon railroad to the North Carolina line. In this expedition it lost four men. On January 1, 1865, there were present for duty in the Sixteenth sixteen officers and five hundred and twelve men. On the 5th of February it moved to the left and took part in the battle of Hatcher's Run, losing one officer and seventy three men killed and wounded, including two color bearers. On the 29th of March the last campaign of the war opened, in which the Fifth corps operated with General Sheridan's cavalry ; General Chamberlain's brigade opening the campaign with a decisive blow upon the enemy on the "Quaker Road." On the White Oak Road, on the 31st, the Sixteenth lost one man killed and four wounded, and one officer and twenty-three men missing. In the brilliant action of Five Forks, a cyclone attack on the enemy's position, one of the picturesque battles of the war,—the regiment was closely engaged, Lieut. Col. Farnham being severely wounded through the lungs and one man killed and twelve wounded. In the rapid and brilliant movements which taxed our men to the utmost, but resulted in Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, the regiment took an active and earnest part and had the honor of being at Appomattox at the time of Lee's surrender. After about a month of occupation in taking possession of Confederate property and maintaining and administering peace and order along the line of the South Side railroad, the Fifth corps took up its march through Petersburg and Richmond and across almost all the great and terrible battlefields of the war toward Washington, and encamped at Arlington Heights on the 12th of May This return march over fields of such tremendous experiences was an incident never to be forgotten. The regiment took its part in that last grand review of the army in Washington, where it laid down its own arms before the constituted authorities of the nation in the most magnificent spectacle ever beheld on this continent. On the 5th of June the regiment, as such, was mustered out of the service of the United States ; its later recruits, whose term of service had not expired, were assigned to the Twentieth Maine regiment. When leaving for the homeward journey, on June 6th, the regiment passing through Washington, marched by the hospital where Colonel Farnham lay, as was then supposed at the point of death, that he might take a last look at the command he loved so well. Reaching Augusta on the 10th of June the regiment was quartered in the cavalry barracks, where it was disbanded on the 16th and its heroic men, having honored themselves and their country, modestly returned to their place and work as peaceful and worthy citizens. The Sixteenth Maine Regiment was emphatically a fighting regiment. On three several occasions it was almost extinguished by deaths, wounds or capture. At Fredericksburg it lost more than half its number ; at Gettysburg it had at the close of the first day only thirty-eight men and four officers left ; at Laurel Hill it lost nearly one-third of its men ; at the Weldon Railroad it lost more than half the men engaged. First or last, every member of its color-guard was killed or wounded. The regiment left Augusta in 1862 with 960 enlisted men. It received in all 916 recruits. It lost in killed and mortally wounded 10 officers and 168 men. It had wounded in action 22 officers and 266 men. There died of disease one officer and 240 men. It had discharged for disability 17 officers and 260 men. Resigned and discharged for promotion, 25 officers; discharged by order and for promotion, 126 enlisted men missing in action fate unknown, deserted, and transferred to other organizations in the service, 673 enlisted men. There belonged to it during the three years of its existence 1,876 enlisted men and 86 officers, and its total diminutions as above stated for the same period from all causes were 1,467 men and 53 officers; the remainder—33 officers and 409 men—were mustered out with the regiment or elsewhere (a). It was fortunate in its field officers, whose ability and character commanded respect and affection, and the mutual regard between officers and men of this regiment is something perhaps remarkable. It is not too much to say that this regiment will have place in history as one of the most intelligent, patriotic, reliable and faithful regiments that went out from the State of Maine, and one whose part and office of fortitude and selfsacrifice on the first day of the battle of Gettysburg was to check the victorious advance of the rebel army and enable the shattered remnants of the First Corps to form a new line on Cemetery Ridge, thus having no small part in determining the final fortunes of that memorable field.