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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
Maine’s “Iron Brigade” Led by Waterville’s Harris Plaisted
I
by Charles Francis
n August of 1861 a young Maine lawyer named Harris Plaisted volunteered his services for the Union Army. At the same time, his friend Winslow Spofford also volunteered. Republican Governor Israel Washburn appointed Plaisted as Lieutenant Colonel of the 11th Maine Volunteer Regiment, which formed in Augusta in November of that year. Spofford became a major. Probably the best explanation as to why Plaisted and Spofford were given high-ranking appointments is that both were active in the Republican Party. In particular, Plaisted served on the staff of Republican Party founder Governor Lot M. Morrill from 1858 to 1860. The
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fact that Plaisted and Spofford were political appointees, however, would have no bearing on the great contributions they would make to the overall war ef-
fort. Plaisted would become recognized as a brilliant field commander. Spofford would sadly lose his life commanding the 11th Maine at the siege of Petersburg. The battles of the spring and summer of 1864 are considered among the bloodiest and hardest-fought of the Civil War. They are known in history as the Wilderness Campaign since made famous by Stephen Crane in The Red Badge of Courage. Some consider the Wilderness Campaign to be General Ulysses Grant’s finest hour as a military commander because it was then that his Army of the Potomac broke the back of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Vir(cont. on page 64)
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