1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment
- 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment
The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment was a Union regiment in the American Civil War. It suffered more casualties in an ill-fated charge at the Battle of Petersburg than any Union regiment lost in a single day of combat. It was also the Union regiment with the highest number of officers killed (23). [Donald Cartmell, "Civil War Book of Lists" (2001), p. 81]
The regiment was mustered in Bangor, Maine in 1862 as the 18th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment and consisted mostly of men and officers from the Penobscot River Valley (the area around Bangor and points east). It was commanded by Col. Daniel Chaplin, a Bangor merchant. Its name was changed in 1863 to the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment.
At the Battle of Spotsylvania the regiment took its first heavy casualties - 6 officers and 76 men killed, and another 6 officers and 388 men wounded. At the Battle of Petersburg, however, an ill-advised charge across an open field toward Confederate breast-works on June 18, 1864, ordered by Chaplin, resulted in the greatest single massacre of a Union regiment to occur in the war, with 7 officers and 108 men killed, and another 25 officers and 464 men wounded. These casualties constituted 67% of the strength of the 900-man force. Chaplin survived the action but was later killed by a sharpshooter. [William E.S. Whitman and Charles H. Turner, "Maine in the War for the Union" (Lewiston, Me., 1865), pp.458-471]
All in all, the 1st Maine sustained one of the highest casualty rates in the war, with 421 killed, and another 260 dead of disease [ [http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:8AOqv5QuRhkJ:www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmearty.htm+%221st+maine+heavy+artillery%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=sg Civil War Archive, Union Regimental Histories, Maine] Retrieved June 9, 2008]
A monument to the 1st Maine stands on the former battlefield at Petersburg.
Charles Hamlin, son of Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, was originally an officer in this regiment, but was promoted to a position on the staff of Maj. Gen. Hiram G. Berry before it saw significant action.
References
External links
* [http://www.cwoodcock.com/firstmaine/ The First Maine Heavy Artillery] Retrieved June 9, 2008
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