Radio Script #458

Little Talks on Common Things

May 1, 1960

As we approach the one hundredth anniversary of the Civil War. it is appropriate that we mention from time to time on this program Waterville’s contribution to that great conflict. We have frequently noted that two brothers. William and Francis Heath. raised the first company to leave Waterville for the front. that William was killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill in 1862, and that the local GAR Post was named in his honor.

It is interesting to note what happened at Colby College in that year when William Heath gave his life for the Union. One of Colby’s most famous classes was that of 1862. The General Catalogue of the college, published in the centennial year of 1920, declares that class the largest that had graduated up to that time, for 26 men are listed as its graduates. That fact is a bit misleading. When time came for commencement in August, 1862, only eight men received their degrees from the hand of President James T. Champlin. Seven others were granted degrees in absentia, as they were then in military service. The remaining eleven did not get their diplomas until several years later, some of them as late as 1874, but because their degrees were awarded “as of the Class of 1862”, the General Catalogue lists them in that class. Fourteen members of that class saw service in the Civil War, more than half of the total number.

To Colby graduates of later years the best known members of that class were Richard C. Shannon and Edward W. Hall. Shannon entered the war as first lieutenant of the First Maine in 1861 and rose to the rank of colonel. Hall never saw combat. but spent the war years at a desk in the War Department in Washington, where he rendered valuable. if less dangerous. service. When peace was restored, Shannon became secretary of the American Legation in Brazil, became interested in South American railroads, made a fortune in their promotion and construction. Twenty years after the war he was admitted to the bar and became a member of a famous New York legal firm. Then he was minister to three Central American countries, and shortly before his death in 1903, he represented the 13th district of New York in the United States Congress.

Edward W. Hall was well known to Waterville people between 1865 and 1910, for during all of those 45 years he was a resident of this community. In 1866, although only four years out of college, he was asked by President Champlin to take the chair of modern languages at his alma mater. In those days librarian was a part-time job performed by some teaching member of the faculty. When Samuel K. Smith, the Professor of Rhetoric, gave up the post in 1873, Hall became his successor, and until 1891 he combined the teaching of German and French with the management of the college library. He became a truly famous librarian, known in library circles all over the nation. He was the first to introduce systematic cataloging into any library in Maine. He wrote many articles for library and educational journals, and his book, “Higher Education in Maine”, is still a standard work on the early history of the four Maine colleges.

Friends of Colby College may be interested to know that it was Librarian Hall who persuaded his classmate Colonel Shannon to give to the college the unique building that we knew as the Shannon Physics Laboratories. Some Colby men thirty or forty years ago, who never went near the building for the study of physics, knew it best as the building that marked the far outfield for baseball. A hit that landed anywhere within a few feet of that building was a sure home run.

By the way. one of the longest home runs ever recorded on that old diamond was made against Bowdoin in the spring of 1889 by a Colby player named Arthur J. Roberts, the man whom many of my listeners knew between 1908 and 1927 as President of Colby College.

Well, let us get back to that Civil War class of 1862. One of its casualties was a boy from Turner, Maine. named Arch Leavitt. When the first call for troops was sounded, he left college, raised a company for the 16th Maine, and as its captain marched off to battle. In 1863 he was promoted to major, and in the following spring was killed at the Battle of Laurel Hill, a few weeks before his 24th birthday.

Another man in the class, who raised and captained his own company, was Zemro Augustus Smith. Like Shannon, Smith was in the First Maine Regiment, and he too rose to the rank of colonel. After the war he became a journalist, first as editor of the Portland Press, then of the Boston Journal. In 1878 he went west, where he was successively editor of the Leavenworth, Kansas Times, the St. Louis Globe, and the Indianapolis Journal.

A lieutenant in Smith’s company was William Brooks, who became a captain. After the war he attended the Yale Theological School and then served churches in half a dozen middle western states. Smith’s second lieutenant, William Amory Stevens. was killed at Petersburg, Virginia in 1864. So the Class of 1862 of old Waterville College had the distinction of seeing three of its members serve as the three ranking officers in the same company of the First Maine Regiment.

One of the most interesting veterans of the class was William Carey Barrows, who was distantly related to my own family. His wife was a sister of my wife’s mother. Barrows always intended to be a Baptist minister, and he was expecting to go on to Newton Theological Institute after his Colby graduation. But, when war came, he left college, not to become a chaplain, but to carry a gun. He entered the 24th Maine as an enlisted man, and at the end of the war was discharged in the rank of captain. Then he enrolled at Newton and brilliantly served Baptist churches in Maine and Massachusetts until he died in 1913 at the age of 74.

Other members of the Class of 1862 who saw service in the armies of the Union were Frank Bodfish of Fairfield, Elias Brookings of Woolwich, Stevens Clark of Sangerville, William Ewer of Vassalboro. Samuel Hamblin of Standish and George Wilson of Turner.

That really is a memorable record to be made by a single class from old Waterville College nearly a hundred years ago.

While boys from Colby College, as well as from Waterville homes, were marching off to battle, the women of Waterville were not idle. In December, 1863 the Waterville Mail carried the following item: “box of stores designed for the army hospitals is now being collected in this village, and those who are disposed to contribute are invited to do so. Mrs. D. Plaisted at the corner of Main and Center Streets, will receive and forward any donations. The articles most pressingly needed are flannel shirts and drawers, dressing gowns, socks, slippers and bedding, especially quilts and comforters. Also needed are such foods as jellies, pickles and butter. All through the North are strenuous efforts to relieve the distress in our army hospitals, and to prepare for still more pressing demands threatened by expected battles. Everybody’s mite should be brought in.”

In Fairfield, as well as in Waterville, the women were busy. The Mail tells us: “The activity and earnestness of the people of Kendalls Mills, in all measures designed to maintain the Union, ever since the first flash of rebellion, have been highly patriotic. Since the Battle of Fredericksburg the Ladies Soldiers Aid Society of Kendalls Mills has forwarded 150 pairs of footings, 10 pairs of drawers, 25 pairs of mittens. 100 handkerchiefs, 50 pounds of dried apple and $25 in cash.”

It is interesting to see how, through their local weekly paper, the Mail, Waterville people kept up with the war news. Let us see what the paper had to say in those critical weeks before and after the Battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863. In its issue of June 25 the Waterville Mail said: “The position of Lee and his intentions are yet involved in mystery, though some believe he intends a dash into Ohio and the capture of Cincinnati. But we shall see. But he may have his eyes on land farther east. Rebel scouting parties have been seen not only in Maryland, but as far north as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. All the bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio R.R., from Harpers Ferry to Cumberland, have been destroyed. The Rebels have returned in force to Chambersburg and are cautiously moving in the direction of Harrisburg. In expectation of attack, Baltimore has been placed in a state of defense. The hills opposite Pittsburgh are being fortified.”

Then on July 2 the Waterville Mail sounded a loud alarm. It said: “The Rebels have swept into Maryland and Pennsylvania in strong force and with little opposition. Making threatening demonstrations in various directions, they have mystified those set to watch them, and are now gathering rich spoil in the fertile valleys of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Thus far they have managed to elude the Army of the Potomac and whether another great battle will be fought in Maryland remains to be seen. One thing is sure; if Lee is allowed to make his way out of Maryland, with all the booty he has secured, it will be to the lasting disgrace of the Northern armies.”

The next issue of the Mail, on July 9, told a different story. Here is what it said: “Twice has the enemy ventured into free territory, and twice has he been driven back. In a succession of battles near Gettysburg, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week, our new commander, Gen. Meade, defeated the enemy with great slaughter, taking many prisoners and compelling Lee to retreat precipitately. Our soldiers never fought better and the Rebels never resisted more stubbornly. Our loss is great, and sorrowful tidings will soon be coming to many homes. All bridges across the Potomac are reported destroyed, and the river is so swollen by recent rains that it is unfordable. Lee got his army across before the rains came, and now our troops cannot immediately pursue him.”

The Mail ‘s account concludes with reference to two Waterville boys: “Many of the 16th Maine were taken prisoners at Gettysburg, in the gallant charge made by that regiment’s commander, Col. Reynolds. Among the prisoners are the two sons of Deacon W. A. F. Stevens of th is village.”Just a week later, on July 16, the Waterville Mail published a letter from the deacon’s son, Capt. William Stevens. who had indeed been captured. but had been paroled. Here is Capt. Stevens’ account of that part of the battle in which he participated: “It was a hard day of desperate fighting. Hardly had CoL Reynolds fallen from his horse. mortally wounded, when a pitched battle ensued. At 3 PM our regiment was used up, nearly all of the men having been killed, wounded, or captured. Before we knew it, we were completely flanked and there was no escape. Two of my own company were killed — Bates of Waterville and Priest of Vassalboro. Pieces of shell perforated my coat in several places, but I was only scratched. The Regiment’s colors were not captured. They were carried by Corporal Thomas of Fairfield. When it was found impossible to save them, he and some of the other boys tore them to pieces, almost literally under the Rebels’ noses, and left them in such shreds that no one could possibly guess that they were ever the colors of the 16th Maine.”

Year: 1960