(calm music) - [Narrator] Joshua Chamberlain is arguably Maine's most well-known civil war hero.

In fact, his exploits became well-known almost in real time.

But they likely would've been lauded anyway regardless of how long it took.

What hastened public awareness and appreciation was Chamberlain's ability to write.

His after-action reports, his letters, and his speeches brought the war and Joshua Chamberlain forward in public consciousness.

Bowdoin's professor of rhetoric was a man of letters.

By the same token, John Mead Gould, and, to a lesser extent, Abial Edwards became known through their writings.

Edwards' homely letters to his longed-for girlfriend, Anna Contant, provided a work day view of an enlisted man, first in the 10th Maine Regiment and, later, the 29th.

Gould's writings, exhaustive journal entries and his letters to his friend, Edward Morse, provide a comprehensive record of the regiment service.

Although Gould and Edwards knew one another, they did not correspond, which makes their separate accounts resonate as factual in that they largely agree on the dates, places, conditions, and outcomes of their times in the Union army.

(rifles booms) (slow music) (lively orchestral music) In April, 1861, militia companies throughout Maine received a summons from Governor Israel Washburne.

- [Commander] Fire!

(cannons booming) - [Narrator] Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina had been bombarded, (explosion booms) and the American Civil War had begun.

With no large federal army, President Abraham Lincoln asked the Northern States' governors for help by providing regiments of militia, volunteer part-time soldiers serving their respective states.

- [Commander] Forward.

March!

- [Narrator] Of Maine's 30 militia companies, Washburne selected 10 that were the most prepared to comprise the 1st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Of those 10 companies, only two had been activated since 1840.

Once activated in 1861, however, many of the militia men pressed into active service remained beyond their initial 90-day call-up.

They began as the 1st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, continued as the 10th Maine, then finished the war, and afterwards as the 29th Maine Regiment.

(rifles shooting) The men were in the midst of the war at battles such as Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, Sabine Crossroads, Winchester, Opequon, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.

Their service came at a cost.

More than 1,200 men served in the regiments.

122 were killed in battle.

248 died of disease.

More than 300 were wounded and survived.

In all, the war demanded more than 1,800 days and nights of their time.

Fewer than 30 of those days and nights were spent fighting.

(rifles firing) (intense music) (slow orchestral music) In addition to the formal record keeping of their service, muster rules, monthly reports, after-action accounts, many soldiers kept their own histories and diaries, journals, and letters that told of battles.

They wrote of battles, yes, (cannon booms) yet provided much more by telling of the many days that became their norm, marching, guarding, training, marching some more, setting up camps, breaking down camps, the drudgery of an army at rest, the excitement of an army on the move.

One such reporter was John Mead Gould, a Portland native and graduate of Gould Academy.

Following the firing upon Fort Sumter in April, 1861, he enlists in the Portland Light Guards, which became Company C of the 1st Maine Regiment.

He eventually is appointed as Sergeant Major, rises to Second Lieutenant, and is promoted again to First Lieutenant.

He's later named adjutant of the 29th Regiment and promoted to Major.

Throughout the war, Gould continued the practice that he began as a schoolboy of keeping a journal of his experiences.

He also maintained the regimental records and official correspondence, and wrote letters regularly to his friends and family in Maine.

Where Gould had rank and responsibility, Abial Edwards of Lewiston had neither.

Enlisting in the 10th Maine Company K, the Lewiston Zouaves, Edwards left his job in a Lewiston textile mill and went to war.

He did not keep a diary or a journal, but instead sent letters to a friend, Anna Contant of Portland.

Their correspondence lasted through the war and they eventually married in 1869.

Edwards and Gould shared insights into the tedium and trauma of army life during the Civil War.

The battles are there and so are their aftermaths.

- [Narrator 2] "I enlisted because I was unmarried, unloved, and not afraid to die.

I go to war with no desire at heart to kill or revenge by evil acts.

Nothing would please me more than an honorable peace before a great slaughter is made.

I do desire to live and see a union again.

Anything looking to the extension of slavery must not be thought of."

(train chugging) - [Narrator] The 1st Maine Regiment leaves the state in June, 1861 and travels to Baltimore, then onto Washington.

Although available to the Union army command at the opening battle of the Civil War at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the First Battle of Bull Run, (rifles firing) Gould and his fellow Mainers are held out of the fighting, yet they witnessed the chaos of its aftermath when the Union forces retreat in panic.

By state law, the regiment could only be called to active duty for three months, though many of the men's enlistments lasted years longer.

Still, in September, several 1st Regiment companies returned to Maine.

(bell ringing) (soft piano music) Governor Washburne asks the soldiers to re-enlist and return to serve in the 10th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Many of the men, such as Gould, agree, but more volunteers will be needed.

Abial Edwards of Casco is 18 years old.

He has been working briefly in the Lincoln textile mill in Lewiston.

Although devoted to caring for his mother and his sisters, Edwards believes he needs to answer the government's call.

Anna Contant of Portland works at the same mill.

Edwards wants to know her better and asks if he may write to her from the warfront.

She says yes, and promises to write to him in return.

Edwards is assigned to the 10th Maine as a private, so too is John Gould, but he has begun to climb in rank.

The private journal that Gould keeps, he shares, regularly sending his accounts in letter packets to his close friend in Portland, Edward Morse.

- [Narrator 2] "The proposition to copy them into any regular journal is a very clever one on your part, but my journal is nailed up in a box with papers and stuff, which I did not intend to have opened unless I was killed."

- [Narrator] Edward Morse keeps the letters and journal pages.

After the war, Gould will reassemble them to recount the regiment's history.

Abial Edwards has no idea what to expect when he enlists.

Assigned to the 10th Maine, he soon finds himself marching back and forth across Maryland and Virginia.

(train chugging) As the two armies recover from the First Battle of Bull Run, parts of the 10th and the 1st Maine Cavalry are assigned to the railroad brigade.

The brigade performs guard duty to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

One focal point is Harper's Ferry.

- [Narrator 3] "It is now over seven months since I enlisted.

The most of that time we have spent guarding the B and Ohio Railroad until about three weeks ago.

We are now about 20 miles from Harper's Ferry.

The rebels tore up this road and the government has just had it relayed."

- [Narrator 2] "Harper's Ferry is at the junction of the Potomac and the Shenandoah Rivers.

The hill it sits on is steep, and from the Maryland side, the village appears very large.

It is really, or rather was, a town of some note, but the ruin, the absolute devastation now in its place, is beyond anything I ever dreamed or saw or heard tell of."

- During the Civil War, Harper's Ferry becomes a target for both sides, North and South.

Now, we must keep in mind that we literally are on the border between the United States and the Confederate States.

And as we stand here in Virginia, we're not in the United States anymore.

Virginia is not part of the United States of America, but the fledgling Confederate States of America.

So, with its location, Harper's Ferry, at the head of the Shenandoah Valley, the great fertile Shenandoah Valley in Central Virginia, and the railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passing through the water gap here at Harper's Ferry, this was a place of critical importance.

- [Commander] March!

- [Narrator] With summer approaching, the stressful monotony of railroad duties starts to change.

The 10th begins to move, not to guard bridges and intersections, but positioning and repositioning, preparing to defend their position or to attack if that is ordered.

(rifles fire) Until then, fighting has been distant and abstract.

It now becomes immediate and deadly.

(rifles fire) The 10th Maine moves about the Shenandoah Valley in May, 1862.

The men do not fight in the Second battle of Winchester, but they are fired upon by Stonewall Jackson's Confederate artillery, and are part of the retreat of the Union forces.

- [Narrator 3] "We went to Winchester to reinforce General Banks.

The rebels came into town and we were compelled to leave and leave everything behind.

They drove us 40 miles that day and, oh, Anna, you cannot imagine how much suffering there was.

They followed us closely, throwing shells into our regiment."

- [Narrator] The 10th Maine does not return fire.

That would come later, but not much later.

(drum rolling) Similar to Second Winchester, the regiment is not in the lead when the Confederates show up at Cedar Mountain.

- This is where these two armies crashed together on August 9th in probably the warmest day, the hottest day of any battle in the Civil War.

We believe temperatures reached 98 degrees.

Nathaniel Banks, with his 9,000 men, decides to initiate an assault on Stonewall Jackson's arriving armies.

Jackson's gonna end up having close to 22,000 men on the field.

22,000 versus 9,000, we kind of know how that's gonna turn out before we begin.

(rifles firing) (cannon booms) The 10th Maine boys were not in combat until late in the afternoon.

(rifles firing) Things aren't looking good for the federals, and Nathaniel Banks at that point calls in the 10th Maine to help stem the tide or slow them down.

Could be considered a forlorn hope.

- As Phil crossed the ridge and came out of woods to form his line, he saw the overwhelming number of the enemy.

(explosion booms) (rifles firing) The colonel of the 10th Maine, Colonel Beal, objected to the orders, and he actually got into a confrontation with one of General Banks' staff members, a guy named Major Henry Pelouze.

Colonel Beal lost the fight, and his men turned around and advanced into this wheat field and got pinned down.

- [Narrator 3] "This was a solemn time to many, Anna, for we knew that some would never leave alive."

(rifles firing) "The fellow that was standing with me was shot in the face.

The bullet that wounded him just grazed my ear, causing it to bleed.

Another bullet passed through the top of my cap.

The rebels held possession of the battleground that night, and robbed our dead and even robbed pockets of the wounded."

- [Narrator 2] "The 10th Maine have nobly under fire, but all to no purpose.

How any human being can see anything pleasing in the events of the last 24 hours?

I cannot comprehend."

(pensive piano music) - [Narrator] The 10th, now battle-tested, has little time to regroup, reform, and re-arm.

They stay on the march and within reach of the Confederate army, only once again at the end of August, the regiment does not engage in the battle, but instead, participates in another Union retreat.

(rifles firing) - [Narrator 2] "I was glad it was not our duty to go into the fight.

We're in poor shape for it."

(rifles firing) - [Narrator] Nearly three weeks later, the 10th again (soldiers rallying) comes under fire in one of the major battles of the Civil War, Antietam, (explosion booms) the bloodiest day of the entire war, and this time, (rifles firing) the 10th does not escape it.

In fact, it is the only battle in which Abial Edwards fires his weapon.

- [Narrator 3] "The battle raged all day, the bursting of the shells, the groans of the wounded and dying made a scene that was awful beyond description.

We remained on the battlefield two days and had to bury the rebel dead as the rebels buried none of them.

The sight was awful.

I stood on a small knoll and counted 560 dead rebels on a very small piece of ground.

And in another small piece, I counted 36 rebels and six of our own men lying together.

Oh, Anna, no one can imagine the horrors of a battlefield until they see it."

- [Narrator 2] The fences were piled with dead, where someone got shot in jumping over and others trying to protect themselves behind it.

There was a terrible slaughter along the line of greatest elevation.

Exposed places like this would have always 2, 4, 6 or 10 dead.

After I've been about two hours amongst the corpses, all sense of honor was lost."

- So, the Battle of Antietam, in 12 hours, a fight to determine the outcome of the first invasion in the North will result in the bloodiest day in American history.

More than 23,000 casualties at 12 hours, starting sunrise, sunset.

Now, let's put that in perspective.

September 11th, an attack on our country.

We suffer a lot of casualties.

Antietam is six times worse in casualties.

There will be more men lost in casualties at Antietam than the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican war all combined.

(somber piano music) (bright piano music) - [Narrator] After Antietam, Gould returned to Maine for several months.

Edwards and many of the 10th Maine soldiers remained in camp at the warfront.

It would be April when several companies of the 10th Maine were mustered out before Abial Edwards would see home.

And then, only shortly, the three remaining companies of the regiment are reformed as the 10th Maine Battalion and serve as provost guards at Union headquarters during the Battle of Gettysburg.

(tense music) - The impact of the 10th Maine Battalion Gettysburg was one of support.

Somebody had to guard the prisoners, guard the hospitals.

In addition, they also had to guard General Slocum's headquarters.

They were doing duties that had to be done.

- The 10th Maine Battalion's an interesting story in its own way.

We often hear about the men on the front lines, of course, because the fighting men are doing the fighting.

But the 10th Maine Battalion was doing a lot of the unsung task.

- The men of the 10th Maine Battalion were made up from men from the three-year enlistments of company A and Company D of the 10th Maine.

At Gettysburg, the men of the 10th Maine Battalion never fired a shot.

They heard the battle (cannon booms) from where they were at Powers Hill- - Fire!

- But they were never engaged (cannon booms) in a battle.

They were an undersized regiment.

They were battalion-sized.

The entire battalion had about 250 men present during the Battle of Gettysburg.

On July 2nd, General Slocum orders three pairs of men from the 10th Maine Battalion to go out on a scouting mission.

- And instead of being given weapons, they were given notebooks, and they were told to go out, head towards the northeast, you know, beyond Culp's Hill, and make maps of any Confederate positions they found, any houses, any springs, the kind of thing that would come in handy for an army that was fighting and didn't know exactly where or what the enemy was doing.

- So, the three teams went out.

One team, led by Sergeant Kallock and Anderson, went to a spring where they were drinking water.

While at the spring, they saw a Confederate soldier in a barn, standing, looking, and watching them.

Shortly afterwards, there was a squad of Confederates chasing Anderson and Kallock, and they fled.

And Anderson would later write, "It was the greatest retreat of the infantry."

- And that was the greatest excitement for the 10th Maine Battalion at the Battle of Gettysburg.

(slow orchestral music) - [Narrator] After Gettysburg, Gould and Edwards rejoined the regiment, which has been newly designated as the 29th Maine.

The reorganized unit would not see action for the balance of 1863.

In the early winter of 1864, the Union command decides to send the Maine soldiers to Louisiana and the Department of the Gulf to participate in the Red River campaign.

- [Narrator 2] "What makes me groan is the sight of the water.

It is muddy, filthy, and warm, and summer must be perfectly vile.

Yet, the troops drink nothing else.

I don't wonder the regiments go from maximum to minimum numbers so quick."

- [Narrator] The 29th Maine is among the invading force that moves inland.

The regiment comes under Confederate fire twice, at Sabine Crossroads and Pleasant Hill.

- Fire!

- We started for the battlefield and marched very fast, about seven miles.

Found our army badly whipped.

(rifles firing) We marched right up the front, and the rebels charged upon us and we drove them back.

Again, they charged us, and again, we drove them back.

And still, the third time they charged up to us and the third time we drove them back.

The bullets flew like hailstones.

The cries of the wounded was dreadful to hear.

Their cry was, "Water, water," but they could not be helped as they were between the two lines.

(pensive orchestral music) - [Narrator] The Maine soldiers distinguished themselves in building a coffer dam that allows the US Navy boats to escape down river and avoid being stranded and captured in low water.

Within months, the Maine regiment is recalled north and sent again to the Shenandoah Valley to serve under Philip Sheridan.

Sheridan is ordered to clear the Shenandoah.

For the 29th Maine, (rifles firing) that means combat in places like Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.

The third battle of Winchester is resounding Union victory and settles control of the town, and more importantly, control of the valley for the rest of the war.

- [Narrator 2] "If ever revenge was sweet and a victory precious, it was this last battle of Winchester, here, where we had first seen the enemy and suffered our first defeat, we'd come back once more after years of patient waiting to win our first clear victory."

- [Narrator] The victory comes at a cost.

Major William Knowlton of Lewiston is Gould's close friend and an officer of the 29th.

He has a premonition that he will die in the fighting at Winchester and shares his view with fellow officers.

Within hours, as he is directing the Maine soldiers to a better defensive position, Knowlton is shot by a Confederate sniper.

The wound is fatal.

- [Narrator 2] "The only man, except Alpheus Green, whose acquaintance I've made in the army that I could call a true friend, when I heard that he was mortally wounded, I felt that I had almost been severed from the regiment by it.

The Major's death has affected me more than any man since I've been in the army."

(somber orchestral music) (lively drum music) - [Narrator] The 29th Maine again performs well under battle conditions, and Philip Sheridan continues to pursue the rebels south down the valley.

Fisher's Hill finds the men of the 29th part of the chase.

They engage with the Confederates, though the fight is only a little more intense than a skirmish.

A larger, more lethal battle is days away at Cedar Creek.

(trumpet blowing) Jubal Early quietly moves his army through the nighttime hours.

(soldiers rallying) Early's Confederates surprise the sleeping Union army with an early morning sneak attack that routs the Northerners.

The men of the 29th are not at the front, but soon find that the front is coming to them.

Union General Philip Sheridan is at a meeting miles away.

He is soon made aware of the disaster unfolding at Cedar Creek and races back.

- Sheridan gathers up the scattered remnants of the Union army, rallies them to the point where they've become the fighting force that he expects them to be and turns the tide on early.

And the 29th Maine, these guys are part of that.

(soldiers rallying) And Early has to retreat, and that ends forever any battle for the Shenandoah Valley.

(intense orchestral music) - [Narrator 2] "History must give General Sheridan credit for doing what only such generals as Napoleon and his kind have been able to do.

The halting of a whipped and disorganized army five miles from the place of attack is a feat that has not been done by many Union generals.

To turn that army around and order a forward march without the help of a single fresh troop is perfectly wonderful."

- [Narrator] With the valley now open, Sheridan and his army begin to fulfill General Grant's order to take or destroy anything that could be used to help the Confederates.

- [Narrator 2] "The work of destruction is commenced in this valley.

It is fearful to think of the end, for under General's order to burn or take everything that will feed an army, there must be an awful destruction.

The loss to poor people makes my heart ache.

Several instances of taking the only cow and the last particle of grain from families consisting only of persons over 70 and under 17 and desperately poor at that.

(somber orchestral music) - [Narrator] Cedar Creek is the last battle action for the 29th Maine Regiment.

The unit will be posted in the Shenandoah Valley while the army of the Potomac continues its pursuit of the army of Northern Virginia.

Abial Edwards is now a corporal.

He has long had enough of war.

- [Narrator 3] "Oh, Anna, I am tired and weary.

Thank God you do not know the trials of the battlefield, the hard marches, and all the trials of a soldier's life.

But we are not disheartened yet.

We shall see victory, though, per chance, I may never live to see it.

But there is rest for the weary beyond all this trouble, a land where war and its horrors never come."

(hammer clinking) - [Narrator] For the men of the 29th Maine, including Gould and Edwards, the war effort ends much as it began.

The men are at the north end of the Shenandoah Valley and relatively at peace.

Their fighting is over.

- [Narrator 2] "So, I have realized, after a fashion, a dream I have had for four years.

I had always thought there would be one last grand battle that would end the Confederacy."

(soldiers rallying) "Instead of this, however, the bottom dropped out of the rotten concern, and its pieces were easily smashed.

I've seen this, seen the rebellion ended, and I still live unhurt."

- [Narrator] Both soldiers will be sent to South Carolina to oversee the peace, and both will eventually return to Maine and their families.

Abial will continue, in his tentative way, to court Anna Contant.

They marry in 1869.

Abial Edwards dies 10 years later.

John Mead Gould, now 27, completes his formal military service.

Also marries and vainly tries to grow a business in Carolina.

When that fails, he becomes a longtime resident of Portland and resumes a life far from the ravages of war.

Goulds also continues writing, relying upon his journals and official reports to compile a first-person account of the war.

He dies in 1930.

(slow music) (pensive classical music)