I read this article today in the Capital Weekely and thought others might like it as well.

I took note of it as an example of interactions of Maine soldiers during the Civil War with freed slaves. One of those little tid-bits that I forget about from time to time.

Fred Brown: James G. Blaine's coachman
BY ANTHONY DOUIN
Capital Weekly - Feb. 9, 2006

Fred Brown appeared before Maine Gov. Fredrick Robie and his council during the summer of l886 to apply for a position at the Statehouse.

Brown was an African-American and given the racial attitudes of the times, he was not seeking a job as a commissioner or even a clerk for a commissioner. Rather, the job he was seeking was that of night watchman at the Statehouse.

Then later in the article:

In April 1862, Union forces captured New Orleans and the slaves there became contraband of war. Freed from slavery, Brown obtained employment at the headquarters of Gen. Benjamin Butler, who commanded the Union forces in the city. He worked there for about three months before he appeared at the camp of the 15th Maine Infantry, where he became the servant of Maj. Shorey.

He served both Shorey and the regiment. It was noted that Brown was keenly intelligent and efficient and knew how to handle horses. Shorey remembered: “So he served the company (B) and the regiment in various ways. He was a general-utility man and very competent in the care of horses . He was in all our campaigns - Florida, Southern Texas and the Red River. It was in the Red River Campaign that Brown took away a souvenir he bore for the rest of his life. He was wounded in the neck. The bullet was located so near the jugular that doctors refused to remove it because it was too dangerous an operation.