MaineMilitia.com

Here is some information about Maine's links to the Confederacy. This is a subject that is not impressed by many historians.

Maine was a very pro-Union state even compared to the standards of other Northern states. Maine had the largest percentage of its male population serving in the Union army than any other Union state.
However, Maine was also home to a number of soldiers who chose to fight for the South during the War for Southern Independence. There were also, as in most other Northern states, a share of citizens who supported the South's right to secede and were critical about Lincoln's invasion of the South.
A Bangor Maine newspaper,Union, wrote,
"The difficulties between the North and the South must be compromised, or the separation of the states shall be peaceable....here in Maine, not a Democrat will be found who will raise his arm against his brethern of the South. From one end of the state to the other let the cry of Democracy be, Compromise or Peaceable Separation."
Two generals who led troops in the Confederate army were born in Maine.
Brig.General Danville Ledbetter was born in Leeds Maine, Aug 26, 1811.
He graduated from West Point in 1836 and was a captain in the US army. During the War Between the States he became a Lt. Colonel of Alabama troops. In 1862 he became a Brig. General and Chief engineer for the Army of Tennessee between 1863 and 1864. He designed the defenses at Mobile, Alabama and the Confederate lines at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. He died in Canada shortly after the war.
Major General Howard who first commanded Federal troops of the 3rd Maine regiment and later led a corps in the Army of the Potomac was also from Leeds Maine.

Brig. General Zebulon York was the only other native of Maine who became a general officer in the Confederate Army. He was born in Avon, Maine in 1819. He started the Civil War commanding troops from Louisiana and quickly became a general officer. In the defense of his chosen country, Brig. General York lost an arm for the Confederacy. He led 1,000 troops to defend "at all costs" North Carolina's longest railroad bridge against Stoneman's Union cavalry near the end of the war. It was one of the last Confederate successes of the war.
He died in the year 1900.
Maine did not see much action during the Civil War. There was a major naval battle in Portland Harbor. Also the war's most Northern Confederate raid happened in Calais, Maine. Captain William Collins of the 15th Mississippi led a group of Confederates across the Canadian/U.S. border into Calais to raid the town's banks and bring the war that terrorized the South onto the quite streets of this small Maine village. However, Collins' brother, Reverend John Collins who lived in Maine informed Federal authorities of his brother's mission. Before the first shot was fired Captain William Collins and his band of rebels were arrested at the National Bank of Calais. On Captain Collins' body was discovered a Confederate flag. Collins had hoped that the flag would wave victoriously over the Maine countryside. Instead, betrayed by his brother, Collins and his men became POWs in a county jail for the rest of the war.
Also interesting, and I don't know much about this, there was a draft riot in little Kingfield, Maine. So notorious was it that it was reported that the small village was involved in it's own secession crises.

There at least six Confederate soldiers buried in Maine that I know of. There is rumored to be several more.
Two are unknown soldiers. What happened to the unknowns was that during the war they were sent north by accident!
In Gray, Maine, parents were waiting for the body of their son, a Union soldier, who died at the battle of Cedar Mountain in 1862. You can imagine their surprise when they opened the coffin and saw not their son but the body of a rebel soldier. Yet, the family and town buried the soldier with a handsome headstone with honors. His stone reads "Stranger. A Soldier of the late war. died 1862. Erected by the ladies of Gray." Being a local legend, a wooden sign swings in the wind pointing to where he is buried. The real son, dressed in blue, was finally sent to Gray where he was buried next to the "stranger." On the Union statue in Gray, that has a list of the Union dead from the town you will also see "unknown Confederate" included in the list.
The other unknown Confederate buried in Maine is in Durham. The theory there was that upon the Confederate's coffin, his town was written. Durham. He was supposed to be sent to Durham, North Carolina but somehow was sent to Durham, Maine! A few years ago friends of the 15th Alabama, a SCV camp and a SUV camp raised money to buy him a headstone that reads "Unknown Confederate." The other Confederates buried are those soldiers who either moved to Maine after the war or died on their way to Canada after a prison escape.
Each year Confederate units in Maine mark as many dates as possible to have ceremonies at these Confederate graves. Our latest one was at Poland Springs for a soldier of a Florida regiment.

I am not sure how much of this information will help you in your assignment. It is, at least, an interesting subject to research.
Good luck!
-Zac
15th Alabama Company G www.mainerebels.org

Gen. R. Davis. born in Woodville, ME (near Lincoln)and was the newphew to President Jefferson Davis. He led a Mississippi Brigade in the Railroad Cut at Gettysburg, where they were decimated by Federal fire on the first day.

Will