(CIVIL WAR MAINE) Broadside poem titled Roll of Company F 1

Sale 2615 - Lot 78

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(CIVIL WAR--MAINE.) Broadside poem titled "Roll of Company F, 10th Maine Volunteers, at Relay, Md." Letterpress broadside, 18 x 8 inches; moderate wear, small mount remnants on verso. No place, circa late 1861

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The 10th Maine Infantry was mustered in October 1861, and then spent most of November on guard duty at the Relay House in Relay, MD, an important Union transportation hub. This song was written to memorialize the regiment's Company F, known before the war as the Lewiston Light Infantry. The regiment had no martial accomplishments by this date, but every single soldier in the company is given a line or two in verse. Most of them make puns on the soldier's name or reference their height, age, or occupation as recorded on the company's muster roll. "Charles Burr is a boy of eighteen years / And Amaziah Grant / The oldest man now in our mess / Doth still for glory pant." This is probably not the only poem to name every man in a company--but we can't recall ever seeing another.

Life soon became less peaceful for the 10th Maine, which suffered heavy losses at Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. We can find no other mention of this poem--in OCLC, at auction, or even in Gould's 1871 regimental history.