5th Maine Infantry

[James S.]

Detailed Service
Organized at Portland, Maine and mustered in June 24, 1861. Left State for Washington, D.C., June 26. Attached to Howard's Brigade, Heintzelman's Division, McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia, to August, 1861. Heintzelman's Brigade, Division of the Potomac, to October, 1862. Slocum's Brigade, Franklin's Division, Army of the Potomac, to March, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, Army Potomac and Dept. of the Rappahannock, to May, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 6th Army Corps, Army Potomac, to June, 1864.

SERVICE.--Camp at Meridian Hill, Washington, D.C. until July 16, 1861. Advance on Manassas, Va., July 16-21. Battle of Bull Run July 21. Duty in the Defenses of Washington until March, 1862. Expedition to Pohick Church, Va., October 3, 1861. Advance on Manassas, Va., March 10-15, 1862. McDowell's advance on Fredericksburg, Va., April 4-12. Ordered to the Peninsula April 22. Siege of Yorktown (on Transports) April 24-May 4. West Point May 7-8. Seven days before Richmond June 25-July 1. Gaines' Mill June 27. Golding's Farm June 28. Savage Station June 29. Charles City Cross Roads and Glendale June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing until August 15. Retreat from the Peninsula and movement to Centreville August 15-27. In works at Centreville August 27-31. Assist in checking Pope's rout at Bull Run and cover retreat to Fairfax C. H., September 1. Maryland Campaign September-October. Crampton's Pass, South Mountain, September 14. Battle of Antietam September 16-17. At Hagerstown, Md., September 26 to October 29. Movement to Falmouth, Va., October 29-November 19. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15. "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Operations at Franklin's Crossing April 29-May 2. Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg, May 3. Salem Heights May 3-4. Banks' Ford May 4. Operations about Deep Run Ravine June 6-13. Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 2-4. Near Funkstown, Md., July 10-13. Hagerstown July 13. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Rappahannock Station November 7. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River May 3 to June 15. Battles of the Wilderness May 5-7; Laurel Hill May 8; Spotsylvania May 8-12; Spotsylvania C. H. May 12-21. "Bloody Angle," assault on the Salient, May 12. North Anna River May 23-26. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Before Petersburg June 19-22. Ordered to the rear for muster out. Mustered out July 27, 1864, expiration of term. Veterans and Recruits transferred to 6th Maine Infantry.

https://www.fifthmainemuseum.org/

History Of The Fifth Regiment Maine Volunteers, Comprising Brief Descriptions Of Its Marches, Engagements, And General Services From The Date Of Its Muster In, June 24, 1861, To The Time Of Its Muster Out, July 27, 1864 by George W. Bicknell

 

[major bill]

Thank you for posting this. I was in San Antonio for a convention a little over a weed ago. At hotel Menger.

 

[James S.]

The Menger Hotel is where Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders stayed. It is also haunted.

 

[GELongstreet]

... History Of The Fifth Regiment Maine Volunteers, Comprising Brief Descriptions Of Its Marches, Engagements, And General Services From The Date Of Its Muster In, June 24, 1861, To The Time Of Its Muster Out, July 27, 1864 by George W. Bicknell

https://archive.org/details/historyoffifthre00bick

The history written by Bicknell, the regimental Adjutant, is out of copyright and availabe on archive.org at the above link.

 

[Legion Para]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568374062/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

Without A Scratch

Diary of Corporal William Holmes Morse, color bearer of the 5th Maine Infantry. The diary gives an excellent portrayal of the daily life of a Civil War soldier in the Army of the Potomac. Morses written expressions of his experiences in battle are visionary depictions that allow the reader to see the action as if being present at the scene. His battle record was extraordinary; fighting in such battles as Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Rappahannock Station, Winchester, Petersburg, Spotsylvania, and to the surrender at Appomattox. Morse enlisted in Lewiston, Maine on December 21, 1861 with the 5th Maine regiment and fought and documented his 42 months with the Army of the Potomac, until being discharged on June 28, 1865 with the 1st Maine Veteran Infantry. The amazing part of Morse s story is that he was the color bearer, putting him in the front line of fire and yet the bullets and shells rained all-around him through-out the war without harm. His story is a masterpiece of Civil War history as Morse wrote in his diary almost daily, giving little room for the soldier s experience to be neglected. The following is an except from; May 12, 1864, Battle of Spotsylvania in the Bloody Angle. The night was somewhat rainy. We were turned out before daylight and marched about a mile to the right and soon marched back again. There is cannonading on both sides. We were informed that the 2nd Corps (I think Hancock had charge of 2nd Corps), Hookers, had made a successful charge on our left, and we were to follow it up. This charge was at the left of the place where we charged on the 10th instant. An assault was made all along the lines. We started at a quick pace and went ½ or ¾ of a mile to where we found part of the 2nd Corps hotly engaged with the enemy at a strong line of rebel breastworks. Our side held a portion of the works, but had been pushed to the right. A portion of our corps was ordered to charge . We moved forward at a double-quick through the brush and bushes under a shower of bullets. In passing through the brush, Sergeant Croswell had furled his flag (Stars and Stripes) and had not yet unfurled it, when the colonel who was on foot, called to him to Unfurl that flag. Let me have that flag and Croswell handed it to him. The colonel waved it and carried it a few rods when Stevens said to him, Colonel, you had better let someone else take that flag or they will surely drop you. The remark seemed to bring the colonel to a realizing sense of his danger and he asked Where is the color sergeant? meaning Croswell, who was a little in the rear of him. As none of the color guard was quite so close to him as I was, I answered I ll take it Colonel , and he handed it to me and I took both unfurled flags nearly to the breastworks before Croswell came up with us. My place was with the color sergeant, but I was bound to stick close as possible to the colonel so long as he had the battle flag. We gained the works and planted our colors on them and a bullet zipped through mine just as I had got it firmly erected. We were soon flanked on the right and a portion of our regiment which was on the right of the charging line was swung around nearly at right angles with the rebel breastworks, and laid down in the mud, for it had been raining an hour or more.

 

[Tom Elmore]

At Gettysburg, late on July 2, the 5th Maine was posted with the brigade close to the Taneytown Road near Little Round Top, the left of the 5th guiding on the road that leads to the Wheatfield. It advanced with the 96th and 95th Pennsylvania to a point opposite the J. Weikert house just before sunset, and remained for the night on outpost duty. On the morning of July 3, the regiment fell back a short distance and constructed a wall of stones for protection against enemy sharpshooters. Later that evening, Col. Clark S. Edwards led three companies on a reconnaissance to the Trostle buildings, where it recovered a gun, two caissons and one limber left behind by the 9th Massachusetts Battery the previous day. On the morning of July 4, it advanced about 500 yards on another reconnaissance. The regiment sustained no serious casualties during the battle, although several were slightly wounded. It brought an estimated 332 officers and enlisted men to the field.

Sources:
-9 July 1863 letter of Marshall Phillips to wife, www.MaineMemory.net
-Letters from Frank L. Lemont, Company E, Special Collections Department, Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono.
-Diary of Almeron W. Stillwell, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison.
-Maine at Gettysburg, pp. 366-379.
-Memorial and Letters of Rev. John R. Adams, Chaplain of the 5th Maine and 121st New York, 1890.
-Maine in the War for the Union, pp. 124-125.