DOWN EAST TO DOWN SOUTH
AS WAR CLOUDS GATHERED OVER AMERICA, Israel Washburn, Maine’s newly elected governor, downplayed the danger to the republic in his inaugural address on January 3, 1861. “We are told that the slave States, or a portion of them, will withdraw from the Union,” he said. “No, they will not. They cannot go, and in the end will not want to go…they will not pass the brink of the precipice….”
Washburn, of course, was overly optimistic, and Maine, like the rest of the Union, was unready for the unfortunate conflict. “The bombardment of Fort Sumter at Charleston…found Maine as little prepared to furnish troops for maintaining the integrity of the Union as it is possible to conceive,” reported John Hodsdon, the state’s adjutant general.
Governor Washburn called together a special session of the legislature on April 22 and the lawmakers authorized raising $1 million and enlisting 10,000 men to fill 10 regiments. Four of them would be ready to fight at Bull Run, Va., the first major battle of the war. The 2nd Maine, commanded by Colonel Charles Jameson, became the first regiment to leave the state. West Point graduate Oliver Otis Howard took command of the 3rd Maine. The commander of the 5th Maine was Mark H. Dunnell of Portland, a lawyer and a one-time legislator. When the war began, Dunnell was the U.S. consul in Veracruz, Mexico. His patriotism aroused, he received permission to return home, where he helped raise the regiment and was elected colonel.
The 4th Maine was commanded by Hiram Berry, from the harbor town of Rockland. At a public meeting to raise men for the 4th on
