May 2022 Maine at War posts
In May 2022 my Maine at War blog examined topics ranging from North America’s largest rodent altering the Gettysburg landscape to a smart lawyer recruiting for the wrong regiment.
May 4, 2022: Gettysburg beavers create a new pond
Industrious beavers dammed Plum Run near the Warren Avenue bridge at Gettysburg National Military Park a few years ago. The cool, wet spring of 2022 substantially widened the pond behind the dam and partially flooded the Valley of Death.
May 11, 2022: New novel brings the Gettysburg retreat to life
With his historical novel Leaving Gettysburg, author Curtis Crockett writes a compelling account about individual Confederates and Yankees involved in the 11-day Southern retreat and Northern pursuit after the fighting ended at Gettysburg. I could not put down this book and wished for more of the story when it ended.
May 18, 2022: Enjoying Dunkin’s coffee with Hannibal Hamlin
An obscure plaque fastened to a small boulder marks the site where Vice President Hannibal Hamlin lived in Hampden, Maine. Today a nationally known coffee shop occupies the Hamlin homestead. Imagine the insider information that the vice president might offer while sitting down to coffee and a doughnut!
May 25, 2022: A legal beagle recruits for the wrong regiment
A talented Bangor attorney, Harris Merrill Plaisted started recruiting a company for the 12th Maine Infantry Regiment on September 27, 1861. The problem was, he had enlisted in the 11th Maine Infantry just two days earlier. What was he up to?
Hamlin was perhaps the most invisible VP in the history of this country.