by Lea Wait
President Lincoln spent hours in the telegraph office at the War Department, waiting for messages from the front and sending back commands. At the beginning of the war, both the North and the South used the usual dots and dashes of Morse Code to send information, but as the war continued, both developed secret messaging systems so their telegrams could not be read by the opposition.
All of the events mentioned in the book, except those related directly to Nell and Owen, did take place in Wiscasset during April or early May of 1861. For those wondering why Charlie, Joe, and Nell did not attend school: As in many other states, although public schools were available (the teachers were often recent graduates), Maine had no compulsory education laws until after the Civil War. It was common for students to attend classes only until they felt they’d learned enough reading and arithmetic to pursue whatever their future profession would be. A few students went on to higher education, but most boys stayed at home to help their fathers, or were apprenticed, and girls learned homemaking skills from their mothers or “went into service” with other families.
Although the causes of the American Civil War can be traced to issues whose seeds were planted decades earlier, the war officially began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, and ended with the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The four years between those dates were the bloodiest in American history.
By the end of the war, approximately half of the military-aged white men in the North had served in either the army or the navy, as had close to eighty percent of the white men in the South. During the first year of the war, African-American soldiers were not welcomed in the army (they were accepted in the navy), but in the summer of 1862, the Militia Act allowed them to enlist, although only to serve under white officers. By the end of the war, 179,000 African-American men had served in 166 black Union regiments.
Of all men who served, on both sides, 620,000 died; 414,000, or two-thirds, died from diseases contracted because of unsanitary conditions in the field and lack of medical supplies and knowledge.
Every citizen in the country was involved in the war. It was fought in farmyards and cornfields. It took sons and fathers away from families who needed their support. Women, children, and men too old or too disabled to fight took over the jobs of the men who were fighting.
More than 70,000 Maine men were in uniform at some time during the war, not including those who served in the Home Guard; 204 of those men came from the little village of Wiscasset. Maine had the highest percentage of volunteers of any Union state: sixty percent of eligible men aged eighteen to forty-five. Close to 9,400 of those men died; an additional 5,800 were discharged for injury or illness; and more than 600 were listed as “missing in action.”
On the home front, the Bates Mills in Lewiston, Maine, advertised for 120 girls and boys, “to work nine hours per day to run their machinery extra time, to supply the government with tent cloth, so much needed by our soldiers in the field.”
Not all fighting was in the Southern and middle states. In June of 1863, Confederates seized the Caleb Cushing, a Union ship in Portland Harbor, and sailed it out to sea before being caught. (The Confederates were captured, but the Caleb Cushing was a total loss.) In 1864, Confederate agents held up a bank in Calais, Maine, but they also were captured.
Concerned by these activities, new fortifications were added to protect Portland Harbor. Fort Knox was built to protect the Penobscot River region; Fort Popham was built at the mouth of the Kennebec River; and Fort Edgecomb (near Wiscasset) and Fort McClary (at the mouth of the Piscataqua River in Kittery) were re-garrisoned. Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, who had enlisted as a private in the Maine Home Guard when the war began in 1861, was called to active duty in 1864, and reported at Fort McClary in July of 1864—the only time a president or vice president of the United States has served in active military duty while in office. (Hamlin served as a cook for six months.)
In Chapter 28 of Uncertain Glory, Mr. Bascomb mentions the trial of Nathaniel Gordon. Captain Gordon (1834–62), a Portland, Maine, man, was the only American slave trader to be tried, convicted, and executed for being engaged in the slave trade. He was hung in New York City in 1862.
Bibliography
This list does not begin to fully represent the sources consulted in writing Uncertain Glory, but does suggest some resources for anyone interested in information about the Civil War and, particularly, its effect on children and young people in both the North and the South. I have also included several books on the fascinating subject of spiritualism in nineteenth-century American history and culture.
Beattie, Donald, Rodney M. Cole, and Charles G. Waugh (eds.). A Distant War Comes Home: Maine in the Civil War Era. Camden, ME: Down East Books, 1996.
Braude, Ann. Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989 (second edition).
Chambers II, John Whiteclay (ed.). The Oxford Companion to American Military History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Hoar, Jay S. Callow, Brave and True: A Gospel of Civil War Youth. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1999.
Marten, James. The Children’s Civil War. Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Murphy, Jim. The Boys’ War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War. New York: Clarion Books, 1990.
Podmore, Frank. Mediums of the Nineteenth Century (volumes 1 and 2). New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, Inc., 1963 (reprint of 1902 book).
Sears, Stephen W., Aaron Sheehan-Dean, and Brooks D. Simpson (eds.). The Civil War: The First Year Told By Those Who Lived It. New York: Penguin Group, The Library of America, 2011.
Soodalter, Ron. Hanging Captain Gordon: The Life and Trial of an American Slave Trader. New York: Atria Books, 2006.
Stuart, Nancy Rubin. The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2005.
Weisberg, Barbara. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. San Francisco: Harper, 2004.
Williams, David. A People’s History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom. New York: The New Press, 2005.
About the Author
Lea Wait lives on the coast of Maine, where she writes both historical novels for eight- to fourteen-year-olds, and mysteries for adult readers. Lea grew up in Maine and New Jersey, graduated from Chatham College, earned graduate degrees from New York University, and worked for AT&T while she was raising the four daughters she adopted as a single parent. She is now the grandmother of eight and is married to artist Bob Thomas. She invites readers to visit her website (www.leawait.com) for a teachers’ guide and discussion questions for Uncertain Glory, as well as information about her other books. She welcomes readers of all ages to friend her on Facebook, where she posts frequently about reading, writing, and living in Maine.
Also by Lea Wait
For Children For Adults
Stopping to Home Shadows at the Fair
Seaward Born Shadows on the Coast of Maine
Wintering Well Shadows on the Ivy
Finest Kind Shadows at the Spring Show
Shadows of a Down East Summer
Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding
Shadows on a Maine Christmas