Maine History Online

Writing in Wartime

The experiences of Maine soldiers and others involved in war efforts often have been captured in letters home to family and friends. These letters offer valuable insights into the ways soldiers and those at home think about wars.

William Bayley of Falmouth (Portland), a soldier in the Revolutionary War, wrote to his mother, rarely mentioning battles, but frequently discussing the hardships and deprivations soldiers faced – and the hardships and depravations his widowed mother faced as all her sons were gone to sea or to war.

In 1778, he wrote, "I am goodeal concerned for your welfare and wich that I able to support you but you know that my wages is vary low and every thing is vary dear I would not have you Suffer while you have any thing left that you can Sill to help your Self."

Some soldiers wrote of experiences that expanded their vision and understanding. Thomas Lindsey of Leeds wrote to his uncle from Maryland in June 1863, "this is the place for farming if you was out here you could get rich in five years a farming. The farmers out here are Lasy idle Fellows one smart man from Maine is worth a hundred of them one half of them don't have any barns they let thear cattle lay out doors all winter …"

Lindsey commented on other aspects of life outside Washington, D.C. He wrote, "I have been over the river [the potomac] twice since we have been here the people here are all Secesh they are Ignorant people they live in poor houses and most everyone owns a slave."

He, like Bayley in an earlier war, talked of the deprivations of a soldier's life. He wrote that he had been paid once, $22.10. He added, "I would not advise any man to enlist there is no man that knows what we have to suffer that has not tried it we have a hard time I tell you …"

But Maine men did not take Lindsey's advice. In total some 73,000 Mainers fought on the side of the Union during the war making Maine the largest per capita contributor of soldiers and seamen in the north; its soldiers fought in nearly every major engagement, suffering a casualty rate of 25 percent.

The state also supplied a goodly number of field officers and generals, and its women volunteered vital service in a variety of positions. Maine men and women did not mobilize at such strength again until asked to do so by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Second World War.

Death was a fact of war. Family and friends feared the letter or, later, the telegram that announced the death of a loved one. Some letters about their soldier sons' sacrifice were more personal. For instance, Harold N. Currier, bandleader of the 103rd Infantry, wrote to Emma and John Stowell of Freeport about the death of their son John Arthur during World War I.

He said Arthur "did his duty … with a fine disregard of danger, and an absence of fear that made him a steadying influence with whatever detachment he was with."

Currier also wrote, "So many come over here and die of disease back of the lines; other are gassed, or so badly wounded that the rest of their lives as well as their bodies are crippled – all that seems worse to me than this – the finest end that a man may have, literally giving his life for others."

Soldiers' letters from all eras and all wars describe battles, boredom, military life, friends, death and other realities of their lives. Nearly all focus, as well, on what is happening at the homes they have left, frequently asking questions about loved ones and sending regards to those at home.

For instance, Walter Hustus of South Portland, a prisoner of war in Austria, wrote to his mother in 1944, commenting that Sunday was Mother's Day. "I can just see you now out in the flower garden … How is everybody around the house. I sure hope your all well & doing the same as ever … I sure hope the hens are laying as the eggs sure come in handy I'll leave it up to you to write to everybody & let them know I'm all O.K. & not to worry."

Hustus was one of nearly 80,000 Mainers who served in World War II, more than in any previous war. Some 2,156 died.

Some soldiers earned "hero" status, including 49 from Maine who were awarded the Medal of Honor for Civil War service. One was Joshua L. Chamberlain of the 20th Maine for his heroism at Gettysburg, among other battles. Another, not as well known, was 14-year-old John Angling of Portland, a cabin boy aboard the U.S.S. Pontoosuc for his "gallantry and skill and for his cool courage while under the fire of the enemy…" on June 22, 1865.

Numerous other Mainers earned the Medal of Honor in other wars.