I spend a great deal of time in my car everyday and rarely find anything on the radio worth listening to. So I listen to a great many podcasts and audio books. Being as cheap as I am these days, I only listen to free audio books. I'm currently listening to "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, as read by John Greenman and published at LibriVox.org.

COMPANY B, 20th MAINE, is a living history group dedicated to preserving the memory of Maine Civil War volunteers.  The original Company B was mustered into the 20th Regiment, Maine Volunteer Infantry, in August 1862, in time to march to Antietam with the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac.  Company B, commanded by Walter G. Morrill, had been recruited in Piscataquis County, among the farmers of Dover, Milo, and Sebec.  At Gettysburg, Company B was sent out as skirmishers by Colonel Chamberlain to protect the regiment's exposed left flank.  Posted behind a stone wall, the Company was too far away to participate in the initial fight, but was instrumental in routing the fleeing Confederates, its sudden appearance adding to the Rebel confusion.

 If you don't believe I've been redeemed
God's gonna trouble the water
I want you to follow him on down to Jordan stream
(I said) My God's gonna trouble the water
You know chilly water is dark and cold
(I know my) God's gonna trouble the water
You know it chills my body but not my soul
(I said my) God's gonna trouble the water

--Coded Spiritual

The Chronicle Herald has a nice article today that some of you might enjoy.

The following excerpt is from the article:

In the early hours of Dec. 8, 1863, an act of piracy brought the war even closer.

I am a huge fan of The Pritzker Military Library Podcast and all that the library does. Recently, Russell S. Bonds spoke at the Library to discuss his book "Stealing the General".

Recieved the latest Norlands newletter and wanted to share!

"Norlands"

Contact: Kathleen Beauregard
kathy@tdstelme.net
207-897-4366

SEEKING ICE CUTTING TOOLS

My father, Edward Smith, is well known in the commerce business in Bangor. You may remember him as the organizer of Katahdin Ironworks Township. That was when I was merely a baby back in 1843. I had since moved with my mother to a coastal whaling town in Connecticut. My grandfather was ill and mother needed to go help tend to him.

The Bowdoin Orient, the student newspaper at Bowdoin College, has an article this week discussing Jefferson Davis' honorary degree.

Proclamation of a Day of Thanksgiving by President Abraham Lincoln, on April 10, 1862

Washington, D.C.
April 10, 1862
By the President of the United States

It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the dangers of foreign intervention and invasion.

It is therefore recommended to the people of the United States that at their next weekly assemblages in their accustomed places of public worship which shall occur after notice of this proclamation shall be have been received they especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Fathers for these inestimable blessings, that they then and there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all who have been brought into affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil war, and that they reverently invoke the divine guidance for our national counsels, to the end that they may speedily result in the restoration of peace, harmony, and unity throughout our borders and hasten the establishment of fraternal relations among all the countries of the earth.

The 4th Maine Regiment Volunteer Infantry flag. This is a picture of a reproduction.