OTISFIELD — Poor leaders, poor troops and poor morale is the way Frank Morse of the 17th Maine Infantry described his participation in many Civil War battles, including the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in Virginia where he was wounded in 1864.

Mary Pride Knight Brackett, a young lady in her 20s, lived on Bell Hill when the Civil War broke out. She recounted her thoughts in diaries as she watched many of the town’s 140 men march off to battle in the Civil War. Some, including 21-year-old neighbor John Henley who died a month later in Virginia from pneumonia, never returned.

These are some of the stories that will be recounted June 23 when the Otisfield Historical Society commemorates the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War with a program titled, “In Their Own Words: Otisfield’s Participation in the Civil War.”

The program will be held at the Otisfield town office on Route 121 beginning at 7 p.m. and will feature the diaries and letters written by five Otisfield residents, including Mary Pride Knight Brackett and Frank Morse between 1861-1865.

During the program, five Otisfield Historical Society members will read portions of the letters and diaries and summarize the roles each of the writers played in the community and in the war, society member Jean Hankins said.

The readers will include Judy Bean Hunter of Auburn, who will talk about and read excerpts from the many letters she owns and transcribed written by her relative, Albert C. Bean. Bean was an Otisfield native and a member of the 20th Massachusetts Regiment who died in Virginia at the Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864. He is buried in the East Otisfield Cemetery.

The readers will also have a PowerPoint presentation to provide background information and illustrations.

“The Civil War program was a natural because this is the war’s 150th anniversary and also because we realized we have two interesting diaries and three sets of letters, all written by Otisfield residents, that we haven’t given full exposure to,” Hankins said.

“With some 140 Otisfield men serving in the war, it is hardly surprising that their experiences varied greatly,” Hankins said. “James Lewis Green, whose diary is owned by Philip Denison of Harrison, was a member of Maine’s 25th Regiment which, by luck of the draw, was never engaged in battle during the nine months of its existence. Green’s diary does give a detailed account of Army rations and sentry duty. ”

Hankins said the society owns only one letter, written by Joseph L. Knight, of Maine’s 12th Regiment. This letter was sent from Savannah, Ga., near the end of the war. In it Knight describes rampant cases of scurvy and how he longs for Maine baked beans and Indian pudding.

The society has four or five public programs a year, including an annual picnic, which this year will be held in August at Camp Arcadia on Pleasant Lake, Hankins said. “Our goal is to have all programs connected to Otisfield,” she said.

Each year the society board meets in January to plan the year’s programs. The plans this year also include a fundraiser for the society’s new headquarters building and a Strawberry Festival on July 10.

Members and nonmembers alike are invited to attend the June presentation. Refreshments will be served after the program.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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