Greater Kennebec & Androscoggin River Valleys
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Maine’s 103rd Infantry Regiment by Greg Davis
A long legacy of service
T
he National Guard, older than our nation itself, has the longest continuous history of any military organization in the United States. In the immediate vicinity of Rumford, the forerunner of the guard, a state militia, dates back to the Civil War with some units in the Bangor and Waterville area dating to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Company B, 103rd Infantry Regiment of the Maine National Guard was the Rumford contingent. They trained in the municipal building and other sites until an armory was built in 1941. Rumford men served on the Mexican border and in World War I. Some ancestors of local residents could have
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been among those who formed the 103rd’s predecessor, the Second Maine Infantry. A Capt. Emerson organized a company of infantry in Bangor, the first volunteer infantry company in the U.S., and it was accepted into immediate service by then Governor Washburn who said, “Rendezvous the troops; the state will pay.” Two other companies, the Gratten Guards and Bangor Light Infantry, then volunteered and were incorporated into the Maine regiment. The regiment participated in the Civil War engagements at Bull Run, Peninsula, Manassas, Virginia 1863, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor.
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One of the early commanders, Joshua Chamberlain (later a four-term Maine Governor) was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the regiment’s famous defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. The Second Maine Infantry was the first to leave Maine to fight in the Civil War and was the first Union contingent to set foot on the soil of Virginia. At Falls Church, Virginia they faced the Confederate lines for three weeks. The regiment was next called out for federal duty on May 2, 1898 for the Spanish-American War. Some men made up a battalion of heavy field artillery but did not see any action. Follow-
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