Radio Script #229
Little Talks On Common Things
May 30, 1954
Since this is Memorial Day, it is fitting that tonight’s program shal I refer to the eivi I War, which ended 89 years ago.
Within the past two years evidence has been uncovered of the part which Maine played in the great Copperhead Conspiracy of 1864. Although the term “Fifth Column” was first used in the Second World War to designate an underground enemy movement wi-thln a country, the practice itself is nothing new. It was very much a live duri ng the Ameri can Ci vi I War.
There were honest, sincere NorTherners who believed the war was a mistake and that a negoti ated peace ought to be worked out. Very few of those men were actua II y Southern sympath i zers, though some of them of course were. None of them were traitors. But, like a lot of well-meaning people in our day, who once listened to communi st propaganda, these misgui ded Northerners became tool s of Confederate spies.
When the fortunes of the South began to ebb after Gettysburg, and especially after the costly defeats in the spring of 1864, Confederate leaders turned their attention to plans worked out by one of their chief spies, Thomas Hines, and his better known colleague, the notorious General Vallandigham. Those plans called for a great uprising of the northern copperheads, as the northern opponents of the war were ca lied, and extens i ve sabotage a II over the North. As a diversionary movement, to attract federal attention away from their major targets in I I linois and Indiana, the conspirators planned bold raids on New England. The major purpose of these raids was to secure funds; hence the vi Ilage banks were the chief targets.
I am sure most of you have heard about the farrous ra i d at St. Albans, Vermont. On March .15, 1864 a sma II band of men came into that town and he Id up the bank. Discarding the silver as too heavy to carry, they fl lied carpetbags with gold coin. Before departing, the raiders set fire to the town. Whi Ie townspeople were fighting the flames, the bandits got away with $170,000.
Maine’s part in the conspiracy came through the daring of a Virginian aristocrat, Francis Jones. Slim, handsane and bland, Jones was a favorite of Richmond society, typifying the Virginian cavalier. Son of the president of St. Louis University, he was well educated and spoke fluently French, Spanish and German. 8arly in the war he entered what he called lithe Confederate Secret Service”, the spy system of the South. He made more than thirty trips through the Union lines by both land and sea. His favorite route was the blockade run from Wilmington, North Carolina to BermUda, then by British mat I packet to Halifax, then by train to ~ntreal, !oronto or Niagara Falls, where he would de~ liver his secret orders and reports to Confederate a~nts stationed in those Canadian cities. Stopping frequently at Halifax and ~ntreal .to meet Jones, Hines came to know we II the vu I nerab i Ii tv of nearby Maine towns. He thus conceived the bold plan of a raid on the town of Calais on Passamaquoddy Bay; and ass I gned its executi on to Jones.
Heading a small b·and of followers, Jones set up headquarters at St. John, New Brunswi ck. They showed. Ii tt Ie discretion. In the sa loons they bragged and blustered. John Howard, U. S. Consul at St. John, soon heard that a raid was planned in Mal ne. He at once informed Secretary of War Stanton in Wash i ngton. The War Department communicated with the Provost Marshal in Portland, and the Home Guard allover Maine were alerted.
On July 16 the raiders made across the border for their target, the Cala is Nat iona I Bank. Un like the ra i d on St. A Ibans three months ear I i er, th i s one was no surprise to the inhabitants. Calais was ready. Sheri ff Brown had a posse hidden in the bank bui Iding, and captured the raiders. To prevent them r_;, , from being lynched. the sheriff removed his prisoners TO the county jail at Mach i as.
Somehow Sheri ff Brown and the cultured southerner, Francis Jones, became friends. Finally Jones decided to tell the sheriff the whole story of the great conspiracy, of which this raid on a Maine bank had been only a tiny divers i on. The sheri ff then wrote a long lette r to Secretary of State Seward, giving a resume of Jones’ confession and urging that it be thoroughly investigated.
Th is was the break for which the State and War Departments had been waiting. They had a lot of circumstantial evidence to indicate a growing conspiracy, but noth i ng so tang i b I e as the word of one of the consp I rators • Northe rn inquiry agents, including the famous Pinkertons –forerunners of our own FBI got to work fast. A II over the nation leaders of the p lot were arrested, the conspi racy collapsed, and a few months later Lee surrendered at Appomatox.
Through the alertness, efficiency, loyalty and, above all, the human personaliTY of Sheriff Brown of Calais, Maine, the great Confederate conspiracy to overthrow the Union by sabotage was thwarted and squelched.
I suppose among the fami I ies of the Kennebec there are preserved many letters written home by soldiers In the Civi I War. Hence suspect some of those once kept in the family of the late Everett Wardwell are typical. These Wardwell letters are signed simply with the initials E. G. H. We have no idea of the man’s identity, but his letters speak interestingly for themselves.
On June 2, 1863, from the Headquarters of the First Maine Arti I lery at Fort Alexander, Maryland, this soldier wrote to his sister as follows: HI now take this opportunity to answer your kind letter that I received some time ago. I have been I azy and neg lectfu I, I wi I I acknOil ledge, but I wi I I try to do better in the future. I wi I I te II you about the hal I shower we had the other day. Although it lasted only half an hour, the hail stones covered the ground so that it looked real white. The stones were from the biqness of a pea to the bigness of a hen’s egg. You may think that strange, but it is true. Some of the boys picked up five that weighed a quarter of a pound. What a change that shower made in the weather! Before the shower it was so hot we liked to roast, and we had to strip off everything we could. In less than an hour we had to put on our overcoats. The i nhab i tants say they never saw such a storm.”
What did these soldiers do in preparation camp before they went to the front? Here is the way EGH tells it. “We have to goon guard every 3 or 4 days, then on dri II, then on extra picket, then on fatigue. It keeps one on the tramp a II the tl me. fee I rea IIy mad a II the tl me, mad with myse I 1. A private is thought no more of than a cussed dog. Yet we are having a fi rst rate tl me compared to what many of the poor boys have. I am perfectly we II, fat as a hog, but I f ever the Lord spares my I I fe to get out of th is, I’ll bet you won’t catch me in such a scrape again. We have Inspection every Sunday morning.
Sometimes we have It two or three times in the course of a week, especially If anything with shoulder straps comes along. Even for the coperal’s clerk we have to shoulder knapsacks, haversacks, canteens and every darned thing we can get on, march In review and be inspected. To tell the plain truth, we was inspected by a second lieutenant that looked as if his mother hadn’t weaned him nor never ought to. It had one shoulder straps and they (Jive It $108 a month.
I would glory to see those shoulder straps reduced to a private’s pay. This war is prolonged a good deal by these cussed officers’ high pay,” It is apparent that the gripes of soldiers haven’t chanqed in 90 years. From a soldier’s point of view the words in the Christopher Robin poem are st! II appropriate: “A soldier’s life is terribly hard, says Aliee”.
There was st I II more gr i ping when EGH aaa in wrote his sister from Fort Sumner, Maryland on January 17, 1864. He tells her that there is much drunken- ness I n camp and that some of the boys te I I him the way to get a corpora I ‘s berTh I sto get drunk fi va times In a row. Says the writer: “I f I don’t get the berth till I geT drunk, 1′” never get it. I have done my-duty as well as any other man in the company. If the officers don’t want to make a corporal, I shan’t sweeten them up as many of the boys do. I hope you have to I d rrother thaT I am we II and contented. am l ndeed we II, but for your information, not to be passed on to Mother, I am on Iy as contented as one can be In th i s confounded hole. I can’t go anywhere without asking permission. But who am I to grumble. The old boss Freddie told me he would give me a pass once a week to go into Wash I ngton CI ty if I wanted it.”
In October EGH was in military prison at Alexandria, Virginia, awaiting hearing and trial. He wrote his sister: “We got in here the fifth of last month. We have not been out i n the yard but once s I nee we came he re • One spe I I the re was 375 I n with us, but now the re is not 200, and I shan’t be sorry when they are a II gone. haven’t had my heari ng yet. suppose I cou Id get to The hospital from here, but would rather stay till after I have had “”I trial.
We have had to lay on the bare floor. For breakfast we get bread and pork, for di nner bean water and bread, for supper bread and coffee. There is a lot going away every day. They have just called a large number to go away. Te II me what has happened in the home neighborhood. Who has been drafted. Don’t write anything that you would not want everyone to read, for our letters are all opened and read before we get them. So be careful what you put in.”
On Iy sl x weeks before the end of the war, EGH wrote the I ast letter in this little incomplete collection. This time he wrote to his brother. The dateline of his letter reads simply “Virginia, March 2, 1865”. He says: “We have just been paid off and I have sent $100 to Mary by Captain Godfrey. Tell her to use what she wants of it and gl ve Father the rest. The yarn is goi n9 around that we are goi ng to be pal d off agal n ri ght away.”
Pay and the news of more had evidently put EGH in high spirits. In a tone far different from his griping letters from Maryland, he now said: ‘IWe have a nice log house to live in and a bully crew. We live like fighting cocks whi Ie our money lasts. Even when the money is gone, we don’t intend to starve. This is pretty good foraging country.”
Let us close this broadcast with a few words about Watervi lie in the Clvi I War. I hope most of you know that Watervi I Ie’s long powerfu I Grand Army post was named for Wi Iliam S. Heath, Colonel of the Fifth Maine Regiment, ki lied at the Battle of Gaines Mi II. This man had been the young fellow who in 1849 accompanied his father, Solyman Heath, in the train of prairie schooners from Independence, Missouri to the gold fields.
When war broke out in 1861 a recruiting office was opened in the office of Joshua Nye, treasurer of the A 8. K Rai I road, at the corner of ~4ai nand Elm Streets. The first to enlist was Charles Hendrickson, a student at Watervi lIe College. The Heath brothers, Wi lIiam and Francis, together with J. H. Plaisted set about organizing local companies. These were soon fi /led and on June 4, 1861 were mustered into servl ce of the Un I on as Companl es G and H of the Th I rd Maine Infantry Volunteers. Company G was commanded by Frank Hesaltine, Company H by William S. Heath. On June 5th the two companies, under regimental commander O. O. ~ward, started for Washington. In those companies were no fewer than 15 students from Watervi lie College.
The next year, in 1862, Watervi lie furnished 102 volunteers for the twelve infantry and one arti Ilery regiments that were mustered. In 1863 Watervi lie supplied for two regiments of infantry and one of cavalry a total of 82 men.
Although it was afterwards found difficult to compi Ie complete lists, because many Watervi I Ie men enlisted far away from the home town, the number of Watervi lIe citizens who are definitely known to have served in the Clvi I War is 421. A very sizab Ie I ist for what was then a small Kennebec town.
I can now tell you more about the building on Monument Street, Winslow, which was once used as a church. It was bui It as a Methodist Chapel in 1880 under the direction of a well known ~thodist preacher of that day, EI ias Wixson, grandfather of Mr. Charles Wixson of Winslow. When the members of the I ittle chapel joined with the Watervi lie ~thodist Church, the bui Iding was turned into a schoolhouse. am informed that its location is not No. 24, but rather No. 26 Monument Street.
Now here is an interesting point. An aged man sti II living had a part in the transfer of this property. Mr. Henry Winters, generous benefactor of the Watervi lIe Methodist Church, was commissioned by E. R. Drummond to sell the property on behalf of the Watervi lie Methodist Society, into whose possession it had come. Mr. Winters sold it, to be converted into a private residence, for $1,000.
The p I ace of E. R. Drummond in th is picture is made c lear by Edi th Ki dder of Clinton Avenue, Winslow. She writes me: “When I was a little girl, tvbther took us 4 children to Sunday School at the Methodist Chapel, and later a fifth chi Id went to week day school there. Everett Drummond was superintendent of the Sunday School. He gave this up when all or many of us followed him to the Method i st Church in Watervi lie. The bui I di ng was then turned into an e lementary school.”
Year: 1954