East Somerset County Register, 1911-1912 - WAR HISTORY
Compiled and Published by CHATTO & TURNER
Auburn, Maine
Clarence I. Chatto
Clair E. Turner
pages 19-20
WAR HISTORY
As the history of the towns in this section will show, the
first influx of settlers came soon after the revolutionary war.
Consequently the towns, as such, had no part to play in the
first two wars of our nation. While our coast towns were
scenes of various kinds of conflicts both on land and sea
throughout the Revolution and War of 1812 the section of
country under consideration was entirely unsettled during the
first conflict and so far removed from the scenes of activity in
the latter struggle that war cannot be said to have troubled its
inhabitants until the days of our great civil strife in 1861.
In spite of the fact that the names of the towns do not enter
the history of these early wars the stories of these struggles are
still told about the hearth of many a home in this vicinity as
they have handed down from father to son. For the region
was settled for the most part by people from southern and
western Maine and New Hampshire who had taken an
active part in the military life of the country. So that the peo-
ple of these town can boast of as great a military record on the
part of their ancestors as any people in New England.
Again and again in work upon their history one may dis-
cover interesting anecdotes of these wars preserved by some
family tradition and there seems to be hardly a family in the
smaller towns which does not boast of at least one ancestor
more or less distant, who was a soldier of 1775 or 1812. In the
town of Ripley we found an interesting account of John Marsh, Jr.,
who was chief of the scouts in Arnold's expedition against
Quebec. Marsh was dressed and painted as an Indian and had
complete command of the one hundred and fifty Indians who
foraged as well as guided and scouted for the expedition. So
well versed in the language and traditions of the Indians was
he that when captured by the French at Quebec and examined
by Canadian Indians he could pass a satisfactory examination
and had he not been betrayed by his blue eyes he would not
have been suspected. As it was he was held for a spy but for-
tunately was helped to escape by some of the Indians from his
own band. He was presented with Marsh Island at Orono in
reward for his services to the Government.
Not less striking and interesting a history is to be found in
the family record of Mr. Guy Emery of St. Albans. His father,
grandfather, and great grandfather each bore the name of
Samuel and each took part in a different war of the country.
the rebellion, the war of 1812 and the revolution respectively.
Mr. Emery has a letter written by his father near the close of
the war which is of great interest, and he also has many in-
teresting relics of the earlier wars. Strangely illustrative is
this of the statement that there has never been a generation
of the English speaking people which has not witnessed a war.
But more than that it is an example of the strong military
spirit which has prevailed among the New England people.
But of more startling evidence concerning the bravery of
Maine men on the battlefield is the history of these towns in the
war of the rebellion. They were among the first in the State
in point of number of volunteers furnished for an equal number
of inhabitants, and in the readiness of the response of their me.
These towns were not the scene of battle but the hardship which
they forced to endure was perhaps no less great than that
of many a southern town, and yet their youthful heroes came
back to a cheerful community at the close of the war and un-
ostentatiously took up again the burdens of active citizenship.
The long list of men sent out by each of these towns will ever
remain as an honor and monument to its manhood.
(c) 1998
Courtesy of Tina Vickery of Somerset Co, Maine USGenWeb Project
& The Androscoggin Historical Society
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