Union Corps Badges and Maine’s Civil Wariest library

What do Union corps badges have to do with a Maine library? Well, they help make it the Civil Wariest library in the Pine Tree State.

Located on the Kennebec River in Somerset County, Skowhegan boasts a fine free public library funded by 1863 wartime Governor Abner Coburn. He left $30,000 in his will to design and build the Skowhegan Free Public Library, constructed in 1889 and opened in May 1890.
But for a Civil War buff, it’s more than a library. Depending on your point of view, the whole building either displays three Civil War monuments or is a Civil War monument itself.

Let’s take a walk and investigate.

The people whom Coburn appointed to get the library built bought a lot at 9 Elm Street, on a knoll that in 1880s provided views five miles up the Kennebec River. Trees now block the view, and Skowhegan Savings Bank operates next door, but the two-story, red brick, Queen Ann-style library looks about the same exterior-wise as a circa 1907 postcard shows. The octagonal tower at the library’s southeast corner is rather neat, but we’re looking for monuments.

Let’s climb the wide granite steps, pass through the large double front doors, and stop in the vestibule. Diagonally to the right, we can see the checkout counter. Let’s turn left, however, and walk through the wide opening into the 28-by-20-foot “general reading room.”

That’s its purpose today, but this was the Memorial Room in 1890, and it still is. Immediately to the right stands a beautiful terra cotta fire place with a three-inch wood mantle. Secured above the mantle is a large tablet inscribed with the names of Skowhegan’s Civil War veterans.

Secured above this tablet is another tablet inscribed, “In honor of the of the men of Skowhegan who served their country on land and sea, in the war which preserved the Union, destroyed slavery, and maintained the Constitution. To whose memory the grateful town, erects this tablet, and dedicates this room in its public library.”

So here’s Civil War memorial No. 1. Now turn around and look at the stained-glass window set in the Elm Street wall. The colorful window depicts Victory (a familiar Union symbol) standing with her left hand holding an American flag’s pole and her left hand resting on a blood-red shield emblazoned, “In Memory Of Our Heroes 1861 1865.”

Here’s Civil War memorial No. 2. There are no others inside the library, so let’s exit the building and descend the wide granite steps.
At the sidewalk, stop, turn around, and look up at the library’s roof line. There, above the three second-floor windows, an arch encloses architectural art set in four rows and placed above the capitalized words “Memorial Hall,” written in runic style.

If you know the Civil War, then you know you’re looking at Union corps badges, GAR symbols, and perhaps a symbol or two you don’t recognize. Here’s Civil War memorial No. 3.

Let’s identify the corp badges and other symbols, from left to right per row, starting at the top row and working our way down.

• Top row: I Corps, II Corps, III Corps, unknown, likely Signal Corps, XIV Corps, and unknown;
• Second row from top: IV Corps, V Corps, VI Corps, GAR emblem and ribbon, VIII Corps, XVII Corps, and XVIII Corps;
• Third row from top: II Corps, XVI Corps, IX Corps, GAR emblem emblem and ribbon, XVI Corps, unknown, and unknown;
• Fourth row from top: X Corps, XI Corps, XII Corps, Potomac Cavalry Corps, Veterans, XXIII Corps, and XXIV Corps.

No other Maine library honors local Civil War veterans like Skowhegan’s does, therefore Skowhegan is Maine’s Civil War library (IMHO). The whole building either displays three Civil War monuments or is a Civil War monument itself.

What do you think? Please, share your observations in the Comments.