[1] The Civil War Archive section, 21st Regiment Infantry, (accessed 30 May 2012) The Wikipedia article, 21st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, (accessed 6 July 2012) Companies in this Regiment with the Counties of Origin, Beginning United States Civil War Research, The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=20th_Regiment,_Maine_Infantry&oldid=5037428. The regiment lost 38 killed or mortally wounded and 93 wounded out of 358 engaged. Military Units Participating in 1865 Mobile Campaign. To Heths surprise, waiting for him was Union Brig. [citation needed]. He hastily sent messengers to Meade and Sickles, requesting immediate assistance. Without the private stand of Sergeant Tozier inspiring others to close up and bolster the sagging middle of the regiment, the Confederate attacks could have eliminated the 20th Maine as a fighting force. Melcher was an inspiration to the tiring regiment as he sprang a full 10 paces to the front with his sword glittering in the sunlight. ham, William H. Jones, Augusta, and Alfred Trask, Augusta, battery I, Randall B. Morton, Windham, Jonathan G. Johnson, Garland. Edwards, Abial H. It would never again have as many men in its ranks as it did at Little Round Top. Acton Memorial Library Civil War Archives | Twentieth Regiment When the Army of the Potomacs commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, belatedly became aware of the Confederates movement, he began to force-march his army north, trying to keep Lee to the west and screen Washington from the Rebel troops. Chamberlain ordered the regiment to go on line by file. At that time, the brigade also consisted of the 16th Michigan, the 12th, 17th, and 44th New York, 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry regiments, and a Michigan company of sharpshooters. hosp. The 20th Maine were also featured in the film Gettysburg and in the novel The Killer Angels. cook. Charles W. Steele, Serg.George W. Buck, SergIsaac M. Lathrop, Priv. Roster of the 20th Maine Regiment Association[. Maine is not an especially large state. Infantry, Maine Volunteers, showing the changes which have taken place The status was found in a The 20th had the highest number of casualties of all Massachusetts regiments and it ranked fifth in casualties of all Union regiments. Strong Vincent, Patrick ORorke and Ellis Spear also deserve greater recognition for their contributions. mortally, shot in left lung, died July 24, buried 6th Corps On July 2, 1862, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet recommended that the rebel army move around the end of the Union line, get behind Gen. George Mead's army and attack from that position, but Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered a direct attack. The Third Maine regiment of infantry was organized for active service May 28, 1861 and mustered into Union service at Augusta on June 4, 1861 with West Point graduate Oliver Howard of Leeds as its Colonel. Men often enlisted in a company recruited in the counties where they lived though not always. See p. 1222 (1 photocopied page) for a concise summary of the regiment's service. Soon, the 20th traveled by rail and steamer to Washington, D.C., to join the Army of the Potomac as part of Butterfield's "Light Brigade" of the Fifth Corps. If your ancestor was a Union soldier, he may have been part of the U.S. Regulars, a unit of the United States Army though most Civil War soldiers served in a volunteer regiment raised by his home state, for example the 11th Virginia Volunteer Infantry or the 4th Maine Volunteer Infantry. No county claimed them. Field and Staff ; A . The 16th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment lost 9 officers and 172 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 2 officers and 257 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. ; John Stockman, Oldtown, wagon master; Bufords forces fired first, temporarily halting Heths force and starting the Battle of Gettysburg. Today, we're pleased to welcome guest author Anthony Trusso. Answering that question adequately requires taking another look at the Battle of Gettysburg and the hell-raising fighting that occurred among the scattered stones of Little Round Top. Elliott L. Fogg, Priv. Source: 1866 Maine Adjutant General's Report, appendix D . The 6th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment lost 12 officers and 141 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 officers and 100 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. The 20th Maine had been organized under President Abraham Lincolns second call for troops on July 2, 1862. The 20th Maine was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War, renowned for its action on Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg of the American Civil War. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Maine in the Civil War: The 7th Maine Infantry, part 1 return James R. Merrill, Priv. Melcher broke this momentary disruption by running down the slope screaming: Come on! Spear, who would later become a brevet brigadier general, believed that all the officers at Little Round Top shared in the battle fully and honorably, but that the bayonet charge was a success largely due to the spirit of the enlisted men. Confederate reports showed that the Union company had been magnified into two regiments. Second Lieutenant Warren L. Kendall, killed. Late in the afternoon of July 2, 1863, on a boulder-strewn hillside in southern Pennsylvania, Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain dashed headlong into history, leading his 20th Maine Regiment in perhaps the most famous counterattack of the Civil War. ; Joseph Tyler, Forward to the right was perhaps someones post-war idea of what Chamberlain would have said if time permitted. ; Oeorge L. Witham, Southport, Chamberlain later said he communicated his decision to counterattack to Captain Ellis Spear, the acting battalion commander of the units left flank. They mustered out July 16, 1865 with the old members mustering out June 4, 1865. Chamberlain seemed to have been blessed with both good timing and luck. Charles E. Avery, Sidney, Joseph D. Simpson, Waterville. Meanwhile, Colonel Vincent tried to rally his 3rd Brigade as the 16th Michigan staggered under the heavy assault by the 4th and 5th Texas. Goodwin S. Ireland, Priv. Perhaps Company H did hesitate on the left because they were taking heavy fire when the charge started. Colonel Chamberlain waspromoted to colonel and took command of the Regiment. Richard C. Shannon Diary, 5th Maine Regiment. Recruits transferred to 20th Maine Infantry 2023 Steve A. Hawks . Major Spear brevetted lieutenant colonel of volunteers for gallant and distinguished serves at Peebles Farm, Brevet Colonel Spear was promoted to full colonel, Regiment mustered out under Colonel Spear. was enough and that it was vain to order Forward because no one could hear it over the noise. From the main monument on Little Round Top: Here the 20th Maine Regiment Col. J. L. Chamberlain commanding, forming the extreme left of the national line of battle on the 2nd day of July 1863, repulsed the attack of the extreme right of Longstreets Corps and charged in turn, capturing 308 prisoners. This page is dedicated to them and to the many groups of citizen reenactors who provide a Total 440. Chamberlain managed to move his troops into a position that surprised the Confederates and then, when the 20th Maine was close to losing its hold on the hill, Chamberlain ordered an unlikely attack with bayonets -- as the regiment was out of ammunition -- on the resting Confederate soldiers. lost in the battle 130 killed and wounded out of 358 engaged. To mark the return to Maine of the 20th Maine's restored Gettysburg battle flag the Maine State Museum opened an exhibit September 5th, 1998. 0 Reviews. It was not until Gettysburg that the armies met in a full-scale fight. Without Morrills up-front leadership, Chamberlains attack probably would have been spoiled and pushed back. Companies in this Regiment with the Counties of Origin, Beginning United States Civil War Research, The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=20th_Regiment,_Maine_Infantry&oldid=5037428. Chamberlain overshadows the 20th Maine in the way that George S. Patton overshadows the U.S. Third Army in World War II. By law, however, the men still owed the Army another year of service. The First American President: Setting the Precedent, African Americans During the Revolutionary War, Help Save 820 Acres at Five Virginia Battlefields, Save 343 Acres at FIVE Battlefields in FOUR Western Theater States, Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Phase Three of Gaines Mill-Cold Harbor Saved Forever Campaign, An Unparalleled Preservation Opportunity at Gettysburg Battlefield. Andrew, Hodgkins Ephralm, Johnson James P, Knight James A, Lowell First Lieutenant, Arad H. Linscott, JeflFerson. Gettysburg, and Descriptive rolls of the 2nd and 20th ME and personal Warren L. Kendall; Co. A, Corp. Joseph D.Simpson, Priv. Gen. John W. Gearys division was aligned just north of the hill and was the largest Union force in the immediate area. The regiment's downhill charge during the Battle of Gettysburg is depicted in the 1974 historical novels The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize in fiction) and Courage on Little Round Top, and was subsequently an important scene in the feature movie made 18 years later, Gettysburg in 1993. Toziers bravery sparked the 20th Maine and changed the course of the engagement. United States. Lees main objective was to move across the Potomac River and try to separate the Union forces from Washington. Cunningham Warren, Dickinson, James, Flagg Orlando, Foss Job, Herscomb By ord. This page was last edited on 5 December 2022, at 20:47. Maine Infantry Regiment, 20th (1862-1865). At the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, as a part of Webb's Brigade, Gibbon's Division, Hancock's (2d) Corps, the 20th was heavily engaged on the Plank road losing Maj. Abbott and 35 officers and men killed or mortally wounded. Stay up-to-date on the American Battlefield Trust's battlefield preservation efforts, travel tips, upcoming events, history content and more. Lieutenants Joseph JA Hoffses and Edward Simonton, resigned; Corporals [1] On May 20, 1863, Colonel Ames was promoted and was succeeded as colonel and commander of the regiment by Lt. Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain,[2] who had been offered and declined leadership of the unit at the time it was formed.[3]. Roster. For the 1979 board wargame simulating this regiment's most famous battle, see, Maine U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiments 1861-1865, "133d Engineer Battalion | Lineage and Honors", "Twentieth Regiment, Maine Volunteer Infantry", "New Maine State Ballad Commemorates Civil War Unit", "New state ballad honors 20th Maine, despite pro-Confederate objections", 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Maine State Archives), http://learn.bowdoin.edu/joshua-lawrence-chamberlain/, Army life: a private's reminiscences of the Civil War (1882), Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=20th_Maine_Infantry_Regiment&oldid=1146546381, Units and formations of the Union Army from Maine, Military units and formations established in 1862, Military units and formations disestablished in 1865, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 1,621 enrollment (soldiers assigned to the regiment), This page was last edited on 25 March 2023, at 15:09. Battle Unit Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service) Colonel Adelbert Ames of Rockland, commander of the regiment, knew the soldiers were an independent lot and would not always obey orders with questioning or commenting on them. "Stand Firm Ye Boys From Maine" by Tom Desjardin. He was convinced that only the tenacity of the 358 Maine men had enabled Chamberlain to defeat Oates two Alabama regiments. (August 1861-June 1864), 20th Ind. Maine. I have always been interested in military matters, he informed Maine Governor Israel Washburn, and what I do not know in that line, I know how to learn. Nor was there time. Coan said other officers joined Melcher in urging a forward movement. Once again Little Round Top went wanting for protectors in blue. But in July 1862, sensing perhaps that the war was going to last a good deal longer than he had first believed, Chamberlain offered his services to the Union cause. It was raised in the towns between the . to Research and Current Projects. Some take his deeds out of context, however, and mythologize him. [8][9] The song "Dixieland" by Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band is also about the 20th Maine.[10]. 20th ME Official Final Roster - users.lmi.net Click the "thumbnails" below for the full size pictures. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, to May . This Civil War regiment fought in dozens of engagements from 1862 to 1865, including the Battles of Shepherdstown, the Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House, and are known for the bayonet charge by which they defended Little Round Top at Gettysburg. An Alabama soldier twice failed to pull the trigger of his rifle because he had second thoughts about killing the brave colonel. nel; Andrew J. Tozier, Plymouth, regt'l color-bearer. They were farmers, shop clerks, woodsman, and seaman. Because Sickle's Third Corps failed to take its assigned position at the left end of the Union line, after the Confederate attack began, four regiments of Vicent's Brigade, including the 20th Maine moved into position at Little Round Top. Isaac B Dickinson, John P West, Melville C Day; Privates Ames John T, Twentieth Regiment Infantry, Maine Volunteers, showing the changes which have taken place from December 1st, 1863, date of the return published in Adjutant General's Report for 1863, to . Fuller, Emulus S., Eustis, Grindle, Joseph, Bangor.