Nick Picerno: The Virginian Who Knew Three Maine Infantry Regiments So Well

Nicholas Phillip Picerno, 71, died at his home in New Market, Virginia on October 8, 2025. He loved Maine and the Civil War, and he called me “friend.”

The Civil War and Maine introduced us. Long involved in law enforcement (for many years in North Carolina, Vermont, and New Hampshire and the last 15 years as Virginia’s Bridgewater College police chief), Nick was already a Civil War buff when he developed a strong interest in the 1st/10th/29th Maine infantry regiments.

Why those three? I’m not sure. Perhaps the personnel continuity; the three-month 1st Maine Infantry morphed into the two-year 10th Maine, and many veterans who served in both regiments joined the 29th Maine. Over the years Nick collected photos, correspondence, uniforms (or components thereof), and other artifacts related to the three regiments. He became so immersed in the soldiers that he knew many by names, faces, sweethearts, quirky personalities, and reputations.

Portland’s John Mead Gould was tops on Nick’s 1st/10th/29th list, and there were other veterans about whom Nick spoke so intimately you would believe they were good friends in the here and now.

Nick loved Maine, too, and he and Kathy sojourned here whenever possible. Sometime during 2012 into early 2013, he came across my Maine at War blog and, before heading up to Maine early that spring, asked if we could meet at Richard’s German Restaurant in Brunswick.

As we approached on the Main Street sidewalk, we noticed a very tall and bespectacled man standing outside the restaurant’s front entrance. I mean “tall” as in Paul Bunyan’s legendary height (or so it seemed), and he was Nick, to whom I literally looked up whenever we stood talking.

Our friendship started there, around a Richard’s table, and continued for the next 12½ years. Between visits to the Shenandoah and Maine (Nick and Kathy particularly liked Angler’s Restaurant in Searsport), myriad emails, and frequent phone conversations, Nick and I discussed Mainers and the Civil War.

Over the years he introduced me to the 10th Maine (Winchester and Antietam’s East Woods in 1862) and the 29th Maine (1864’s Red River Campaign and Cedar Creek). I met John Mead Gould, Major the Newfie (the dog adopted into the regimental ranks after jumping trains to “join” the 10th Maine), George Lafayette Beal, George Nye, and Maj. William Knowlton.

Hours before the 29th Maine fought at Third Winchester on September 19, 1864, Knowlton told comrades he did not expect to survive the battle. During it the 29th Maine reached a particular fence line and fought furiously there. Knowlton was killed in action near the fence.

Nick also focused on Civil War battlefield preservation, especially anything 10th Maine-related at Antietam and particularly the battlefields in his beloved Shenandoah Valley. He assiduously worked with other preservationists through the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation to preserve battlefields in the Valley. Herein lies a connection to Maine.

Nick convinced the SVBF board to purchase from the American Battlefield Trust the copious acreage it had acquired at Third Winchester. The SVBF added to that acreage, and Mainers Peter and Cyndi Dalton, the SVBF, and the Sons of Union Veterans had critical roles in erecting at Third Winchester in November 2021 a monument to the Maine units that fought there in ’64.

The 29th Maine is listed on the monument, of course. Nick recently supported an archaeological dig that found the fence line along which the regiment fought at Third Winchester. A replica fence has gone up on the site. An information panel details Knowlton’s fate during the fight.

You can see that Nick Picerno added a “Maine touch” to the appropriate Valley battlefields. He did the same with his beloved 10th Maine at Antietam’s East Woods, where several years ago Nick called the attention of the National Park Service to a private construction project on acreage where the 10th Maine had fought. The NPS swooped in, acquired the property, and restored it to nature.

Nick devoted more time and effort to battlefield preservation after retiring from law enforcement in autumn 2016. He urged the SVBF to not just preserve Valley battlefields, but wherever possible make them accessible to the public (not to wheeled vehicles, however, and especially bikes, and that always caused me to smile, because I enjoy biking).

An author published in various Civil War magazines, he assisted other authors (including me) with images and his knowledge. Nick Picerno was the nation’s leading expert on the 1st/10th/29th Maine infantry regiments, and even after his death, AI cannot match his astounding knowledge of those outfits.

Nick called one sunny weekday last November. We exchanged greetings, then he said, “Brian, I’ve got cancer.”

“What?!!!!”

“Glioblastoma,” he replied. We both knew what it meant.

Susan and I visited Nick and Kathy last April. On a sunny and warm Valley weekday, friends gathered at the Picernos’ New Market home. The ladies chatted in the living room. The guys literally surrounded Nick in the den. For a few hours we talked, laughed, and shared memories, and the conversation wasn’t all about the Civil War. As happens here in Maine, conversations sometimes meander into politics, and I learned a bit about a few “Ole Virginny” personalities that beautiful day.

Before we left late that afternoon, Nick and I shared one last private conversation. During it I said, “I love you, Nick.” We have talked by phone since then, and now, a week past his death, I still say, “I love you, Nick.”

And I miss you terribly.