The attack on Fort Sumter by rebel forces on April 12, 1861 was reported on page two of the April 24, 1861 edition of the Progressive Age newspaper: "Fort Sumter Surrendered! Heavy Cannonading for Thirty-Six Hours! The ball has opened. War is inaugurated."
Within days of the announcement, a meeting of enthusiastic citizens and public leaders gathered at Peirce's Hall to "stand by the Union, the Constitution and the Government in the terrible crisis of danger which is now threatening the country."
Flags were displayed on many houses and commercial buildings and large crowds gathered in Post Office Square for patriotic speeches and enrollment rallies.
The sound of the fife and drum were heard in town as the local militia company, the Belfast City Greys, mustered and practiced drilling.
Belfast responded quickly to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. Young men, eager to enlist, sometimes lied about their age in order to join what they saw as a glorious cause. Within a few days, ninety men had signed up and during the first year of the war the recruitment offices enlisted one thousand men.
8th Maine Regiment recruitment poster, Belfast, ca. 1861
Item Contributed by
Belfast Historical Society
Belfast met every enlistment quota throughout the war and never had to resort to using a draft to fill out its military obligations.
Most men from Belfast served with the 4th, 8th, 19th, and 26th Maine Regiments and were engaged in many of the major campaigns and battles. The 4th Maine Volunteer Militia was the only infantry organization in mid-coast Maine to be mustered into Civil War service.
An all-volunteer unit with troops primarily from Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties, they fought in numerous battles, including Bull Run, the Antietam Campaign, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Chancellorsville.
They departed on June 17, 1861 from Rockland and returned three years later in late June 1864.
Before the first volunteers left Belfast there was an emotional dedication and commissioning service held at First Church.
The Rev. Cazneau Palfrey led the service and commented later, "It was the most solemn and interesting occasion on which I ever officiated. Many of those young men attended church that day for the last time. I had no doubt of the justness of the cause or its final triumph, but I shuddered at the thought of the bloodshed, misery and death which were immediately to ensue."
A total of 858 Belfast men served in the army or the navy during the war and of that number more than 100 were killed, died of wounds, disease, or in rebel prisons. The youngest man to serve was only 15 years old when he joined the navy and the oldest was 61. Both men were reported as killed.
