"…Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this…"

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
16^th President of the United States
The Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863

I am voting in honor of my great-grandfather, Wilson C. Fitzgerald. He fought with Company F, 7th Maine Infantry Regiment at the Siege of Yorktown, the Battle of Williamsburg, the engagement at Mechanicsville, the Battle of Fair Oaks, the Battles of Savage Station, White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill, the engagement at South Mountain and the Battle of Antietam.

(My uncle, named after my great-grandfather, served in the Army during WWII in the Battle of the Bulge.)
Mark C. Fitzgerald, Bath
Served during Vietnam era

"It is well that war is so terrible – we should grow too fond of it," stated Lee during the fighting.

I am honoring my great uncle, Jerome R. Hodge, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Fredricksburg on December 12, 1862. He gave his life so that others could be free.
James R. Hodge, Arundel
Served in Korea

July 1-3, 1863 – The tide of war turns against the South, as the Confederates are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. During three hot summer days, what began as a skirmish ended in the most famous and most important battle of the war, involving more than 160,000 Americans. Confederate casualties in dead, wounded and missing were 28,000 out of 75,000 soldiers. Union casualties were 23,000 out of 88,000.

Aaron Adams (my great-great uncle) was a private in H Company, 20^th Maine Regiment at Gettysburg. He was a 27-year-old farmer from Linneus, Maine, and he was killed at Little Round Top. He died so all men might be free. Aaron was never married and town records indicate he owned a horse when he left for Gettysburg to defend freedom and justice.
Gena Pelletier, Durham

Summary service record card for Aaron Adams, Company H, 20^th Maine Infantry, killed at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863 –Maine State Archives

Composite copy of the original casualty report of the 20th Maine at Gettysburg. Aaron Adams' name is third from the top. The entire list shows a total of 129 men killed, wounded or captured. —Maine State Archives

When I vote, I will pay tribute to my great-grandfather Henry Hartshorn, who fought at Gettysburg. He was in the 19^th Maine Regiment. He got wounded in the knee, got gangrene, and came home to Belfast where he died in 1889.
Elizabeth Nibby, Morrill

John Thomas Smith, my great-great-grandfather, served with Company G, 20^th Maine Infantry, 1861-65. He was shot in the shoulder July 2 at Gettysburg and taken prisoner, spent 6 months in Libby Prison, and mustered out with his unit in April, 1865.
Larry R. Smith, Wiscasset
Served in Vietnam era

Summary service record card of John T. Smith, Company G, 20^th Maine Infantry. –Maine State Archives

My great-great-great-great-grandfather, James Alden Grant, served in the War of the Republic in Company B, 7^th Maine Infantry, as a private. He died at Petersburg, on June 18, 1864.
Chester E. Nichols, Jr., Harrington
Served in US Coast Guard for over 20 years

John Ervin, my great-great-grandfather, was a Corporal in Company I, 32^nd Maine Regiment. He was wounded at Petersburg June, 1864, in the shoulder and mustered out December 12, 1864.
George E. Spulick, Alfred
Served during Korean Conflict

I am voting in honor of my grandfather, George P. Derenburger. He joined the Union Army in August, 1862 with the 11^th West Virginia Volunteers. He was wounded at the Battle of Snickers Ferry and a second time at the Battle of Petersburg. He was discharged in June 1865.
Patrick L. Derenburger, Oxford
Served 21 years in US Navy, including Vietnam

I am voting in honor of my great-grandfather, Stephen D. Thurston, who enlisted when he was 36 years old, and his brother, Horatio A. Thurston, who enlisted when he was just 18. They mustered in on December 26, 1863 and served in the 1^st Maine Regiment, Company G, Heavy Artillery. Stephen was wounded in the thigh on June 18, 1864, at the Battle of Petersburg.
H. Richard Norton, China

In the summer of 1864, a handful of Confederate agents crossed the border from New Brunswick, Canada, and robbed a bank in Calais, Maine. In the same period, Confederate raiders sailed secretly into Portland Harbor and stole the U.S. Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing from under the noses of the authorities. Little harm was done as a result of these incidents, but coastal inhabitants felt themselves under constant threat.

Three men honored in this chapter – Fields Baston, Sylvester King and John Towle – served with the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery. This unit spent most of the War manning fortifications around Washington, D.C., but in the spring of 1864 General Ulysses S. Grant pulled them out of Washington and reassigned them to combat duty in Virginia alongside the infantry. They were thrown into some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire War. In the space of 10 months, at Petersburg alone, 66.5 percent of their unit strength became casualties.

February 1864 - April 1865 – Andersonville Prison (Georgia) was a military stockade of the Confederate army used to confine captured Union army enlisted men. A total of 49,485 prisoners were detained at Andersonville. As many as 30,000 men were confined there at one time. More than 13,700 prisoners died in confinement. Constant exposure to the elements, together with inadequate food, impure water, congestion, and filth, led inevitably to epidemics of scurvy and dysentery.

Andersonville Prison  – NARA photo

Additional Tributes Submitted Online

Tribute to my Grandfather, Private Hiram Berry:

Hiram Berry served in the 12th Maine Infantry, Co. C in the Union Army from 1861 to 1866. He fought in battles along the Southern Mississippi River early in the war and later served in Western Virgina

Morris C. Berry, St George, Maine

Tribute to my Hero, Joseph Lamb:

Joseph Lamb rose from the rank of private to sergeant first class in the 16th Maine that held back the enemy at Gettysburg and Welden Railroad so others might escape to fight on. He was captured both times and served in Belle Isle and Salisbury for a total of nine months. At Fredericksburg he volunteered to go on the field under fire to bring off the wounded. He is a hero because he saved others and because he had the strength of spirit to survive soul-wrenching experience as a prisoner of war.

Marilyn Burgess, Leeds, Maine

Tribute to my Cousin, Monroe Quint:

Monroe Quint was my second cousin, separated by four generations. He enlisted in the 17th Maine when the regiment was raised in the summer of 1862. He got his baptism of fire at the Battle of Fredericksburg, fought at Chancellorsville, and fought in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg. On July 3rd, during the Confederate artillery bombardment before Pickett's Charge, Monroe was killed by an artillery explosion. He was 19 years old.

Ryan Quint, Gorham, Maine

Tribute to my Great- Great Grandfather, Pvt. George F. Boynton:

A 26 year old married farmer with a family George went off to war in the first draft after Gettysburg. He was a replacement in the 17th ME ID. In his first major engagement along the Orange Plank Road under Gen. Wadsworth- who was killed in that action; Pvt. Boynton was shot through the left bicep and the right shoulder excising the scapula and partially exposing it. He made it back to an aid station and ultimately found himself hospitalized in the Washington vacinity at Camp Campbell. After convalesence he returned to the 17th at Petersburg and participated in Grant's General Assault upon Lee's works. In the cross country chase that followed the 17th was engaged at Farmville VA. where Pvt Boynton was again wounded when a musket miniball passed through the center of his right hand rendering it into a permanent fist and otherwise unusable. For the rest of his life he was not only haunted by the pain of his wounds but by the bloodless psychological wounds suffered. Behold the wounded man with both arms disabled as he labors to tend his lands...

John A. Kierstead, South Portland, ME

Tribute to my ARMY, Cornelius Boyle:

In Honer of my great great grandfather who fought in the Red Diamond Regiment 17th Maine from 1862 to 1865 they fought in 24 battles .

William Boyle, Asheville, NC

Tribute to my Ancestor, William Shipman:

I Honor him for his resolve in keeping with his virtues and values through great challenges. He was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Dennis Shipman, Standish, Maine

Tribute to my Great Grandfather, Thomas J. Gould:

Thomas Gould enlisted in Company 1 of the 16th Maine Volunteers on July 19th, 1862 and served till June 5 of 1865, being honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant. He returned with a recurring case of malaria, and suffered all his long life from what today we would call PTSD. Read about his life in "A Maine Man in the Making," by his son, Franklin F. Gould.

Hilda Grant Jones, Brunswick, Maine