LEWISTON — Visiting the Gettysburg battlefield for the first time earlier this year, Clem Bechard of Lewiston made a pilgrimage to Little Round Top.

A history buff, Bechard took a bus tour of the battlefield, but he was more interested to see where Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine Infantry made their heroic stand on that hill on the second day of the pivotal three-day battle at Gettysburg.

“I’ve been reading about him for a while,” Bechard said. “It just amazes me what he did there. How a few guys just with bayonets can get 400 Confederates to surrender. It was such an important battle.”

Bechard’s anticipation soon turned to disappointment. First, his party had a difficult time finding the 20th Maine monument, which is located in the woods off a trail. His disappointment grew once he saw the condition of the granite monument.

“You could hardly read the names on it,” Bechard said. “We had friends who were with us. They thought a couple of their relatives died there. But it was so bad you couldn’t read the names.”

Moved to act, Bechard talked to officials at the battlefield on what could be done to restore the cherished 20th Maine monument. 

“They told me they can’t put any new monuments because there is a moratorium on them,” Bechard said. “But I said, ‘You can’t read the names on it. Why can’t they put a new one there so they can read the names?’ They said they can’t do that, either. The only thing they can do is a (special) wash to see if they can make the names come out. That would cost about $1,500.”

He discovered that funds beyond normal maintenance and cleanings do not exist for restoring the historical markers, many of which have stood since the 1880s, including the 20th Maine.

Bechard, a custodian at McMahon Elementary School, took matters into his own hands and set up a GoFundMe page. Hoping to raise $2,000 — the extra funds would go for making the site easier to find — the page has raised $370 to date.

“I figured it wouldn’t be hard to raise the money, but I guess it’s harder than I thought it was,” said Bechard, who added he has sought private donations from Gov. Paul LePage, the leaders of the Maine Legislature and the president of Bowdoin College, but has not received a response from any of them.

One person who did respond to Bechard’s plea for help was David Cooper, the chief development officer for the nonprofit Gettysburg Foundation. The organization partners with the National Parks Service to “enhance preservation and understanding of the heritage and lasting significance of Gettysburg.”

The organization tries to fill in the gaps in funding for areas not covered in the budget.

“Monument restoration is one of those things,” Cooper said.

Money is largely raised through fundraising, private donations and endowments.

But what Bechard is doing is rare. In his two years with the foundation, Cooper has only seen two other individuals step forward like Bechard to seek money to restore a monument to which that person feels a connection.

“God bless him for it,” Cooper said. “If no one pays attention to it, it doesn’t get done. We are real grateful for what he is doing. We will support Clem and see how we can help him.”

Maine and the battle of Little Round Top

Fought July 1 to July 3, 1863, Gettysburg was one of the most crucial battles of the Civil War.

It started as a chance meeting.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee was marching his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania, bringing the war to the north, when he encountered Union Major General George Gordon Meade and his Army of the Potomac. The two sides met at Gettysburg, a small town 65 miles north of Washington D.C.

That meeting, according to the National Park Service, quickly turned into a “desperate, ferocious battle.” At risk: the fate of the nation.

For three days, about 165,000 Confederate and Union soldiers fought in and around Gettysburg, killing each other with cannons, rifles, swords and bayonets in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war. Men died by the thousands. At points, the Confederate side seemed to be winning.

On the second day, Little Round Top, the smaller of two hills just south of Gettysburg, became a critical, strategic position, according to many historians. During the afternoon, 4,850 Confederate soldiers and 3,000 Union soldiers desperately fought for the area.

Eventually, running out of ammunition, the 20th Maine under Col. Joshua Chamberlain — which started out with fewer than 360 men — charged the Confederate troops with bayonets.

That assault helped take Little Round Top, handing the Union a badly needed victory.

The battle at Gettysburg fully turned against the Confederate army on July 3, and Lee turned his troops back to Virginia.

Historians say up to 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or missing after the Battle of Gettysburg, about 1,750 of them at Little Round Top.

From the 20th Maine, 38 were killed, 92 wounded and three captured.

Respect for history makes monument repairs challenging

The 20th Maine monument on Little Round Top is one of more than 1,300 monuments placed on the battlefield, which is about 6,000 acres in size, according officials at the Gettysburg National Military Park. Each monument is erected at what was considered the center of a unit’s main line of battle.

Each stone is power washed every three years, according to Lucas Flickinger, the park’s Monument Preservation Branch supervisor.

“The 20th Maine is in good condition, but it is in a fairly dirty state,” Flickinger said. “That’s because it is located in the trees. Most of the monuments in the trees tend to be dirtier than those in the field.”

The scheduled three-year cycle to power wash the monument would remove much of that dirt, but would not necessarily restore the names. Sandblasting and acid washes would likely damage the granite marker and change the way it looked from when it was dedicated in 1889.

To repair the damage caused by dirt, water and the ravages of time, Flickinger suggested to Bechard that the park could perform a micro-abrasive wash, which would clean the stone with tiny pulverized glass at low pressure. Similar to beads, the pulverized glass particles would not cut into the surface.

One option could have been to repaint the names on the memorial, but since the 20th Maine chose not to add paint to the carved names, the park’s staff won’t either.

“We don’t change history,” Flickinger said. “If that is how it was put out, that is how we maintain it.”

Preserving the battlefield is an enormous job. In addition to preserving the 1,300-plus monuments damaged by weather, nature, vandalism or even an occasional car crash, the park’s specialists also preserve more than 400 canons and their cast-iron carriages located throughout the battlefield. The team also works to repair fencing, historic structures and maintain the grounds.

Bechard’s effort to restore the monument could not have come at a better time, Cooper said. The Gettysburg Foundation is planning a major restoration project at Little Round Top within the next couple of years.

First envisioned 20 years ago, the site of the pivotal skirmish between the 20th Maine and the 15th and 47th Alabama regiments is one of the most heavily-visited sites on the battlefield. Chamberlain’s order to fix bayonets and charge down the hill was a key scene in the 1993 movie “Gettysburg.”

Officials estimate that more than 1.1 million people visit Little Round Top every year. The roads and trails were not built to handle that many people, Cooper said. The influx of visitors has damaged the terrain and trails.

The plan, which is still being finalized, will take roughly five years to complete and cost $8 million in a public-private partnership. The plan would balance access with improved protection of the site, while providing more parking and better trails.

“Little Round Top is our highest preservation priority,” Cooper said. “It is really a smart plan and will preserve the area for the next 50 to 100 years.”

Despite his slow fundraising start, Bechard is not discouraged. He is thankful for the support he has received so far from family, friends and colleagues in his quest to make a difference at Gettysburg.

“I was surprised how beautiful and calm it was there,” Bechard said. “You just stand there in the battlefield, thinking of the bloodshed and all the people who died there, and how calm it is now.”

[email protected]

Clem Bechard’s GoFundMe page:

https://www.gofundme.com/20th-maine

“Now, the several states that stood as one in that high cause come here in their own name, — in the noblest sphere of their state rights — to ratify and confirm this action of their delegates; to set these monuments as seals to their own great deeds, and new testament of life…. But these monuments are not to commemorate the dead alone. Death was but the divine acceptance of life freely offered by every one. Service was the central fact. That fact, and that truth, these monuments commemorate.” 

— Joshua L. Chamberlain, during monument dedication, Oct. 3, 1889

Major Maine monuments at Gettysburg

1st Maine Cavalry Monument (Hanover Road) — Suffered the highest casualty rate of any cavalry unit during the Civil War. The unit was mostly held in reserve at Gettysburg, where at that location 1 was killed, 5 wounded, 5 captured.

3rd Maine Infantry Monument (Peach Orchard) — Overwhelmed by regiments from South Carolina and Mississippi, it suffered a casualty rate of 58 percent. 18 killed, 59 wounded, 45 captured

4th Maine Infantry Monument (Devil’s Den) — Involved in a bloody fight at Devil’s Den, it was eventually overwhelmed by multiple regiments. 22 killed, 38 wounded, 56 captured.

5th Maine Infantry Monument (Sedgwick Avenue) — Held in reserve. No casualties

6th Maine Infantry Monument (Wright Avenue) — Held in reserve. No casualties.

7th Maine Infantry Monument (Private property on a working cow pasture along Baltimore Pike) — Held in reserve, taking light casualties during skirmishes protecting the rear flank from Jeb Stuart’s cavalry. None killed, 7 wounded, 1 captured.

10th Maine Infantry Monument (Baltimore Pike) — Scouting duty. No casualties.

16th Maine Infantry Monument (Doubleday Avenue) — Ordered to serve as rear guard and hold its position “at all costs” to buy time for retreating Union troops to regroup in a defensive position on first day of the conflict. They succeeded with heavy casualties. 11 killed, 62 wounded, 159 captured. Only 43 men survived.

17th Maine Infantry Monument (The Wheatfield) — The most elaborate monument honoring a Maine regiment. Behind monument is a 2-foot stone wall where the 17th Maine held firm against repeated attacks. 40 killed, 92 wounded, 0 captured.

19th Maine Infantry Monument (Pickett’s Charge) — Engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Confederates, who temporarily broke through the lines for roughly 10 minutes. 65 killed, 137 wounded, 4 captured.

20th Maine Infantry Monument (Little Round Top) — Positioned at the left flank of the Union lines, Joshua Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge to repulse the enemy. 38 killed, 92 wounded, 3 captured.

Maine Sharpshooters Monument (Slyder Farm) — Involved in skirmishes on the second day of the battle. 1 killed, 5 wounded, 5 captured.

2nd Maine Battery Monument (Chambersburg Pike) — Its six ordinance guns helped hold back the enemy on Day 1 near Cemetery Hill. 2 killed, 18 wounded, 0 captured.

5th Maine Battery Monument (Steven’s Knoll) — Heavily engaged on Day 2. 3 killed, 13 wounded, 7 captured.

6th Maine Artillery Battery Monument (South Hancock Avenue) — This monument is 11 feet high with a pyramid of cannon balls on top. Battery had four 12-pound Napoleon cannons. Fired nearly 140 rounds in attack that proceeded Pickett’s Charge. None killed, 13 wounded, 0 captured.

General Oliver Howard Equestrian Statue (Cemetery Hill) — Howard, of Leeds, was credited by Congress for selecting Cemetery Hill for the Union position after a difficult first day. Statue has an open coat sleeve to signify Howard’s missing arm.

NOTE: Some Maine units have multiple monuments marking where they were positioned during the three-day battle. The 20th Maine, for example, has another monument atop Big Round Top and another stone marking Company B’s position 100 yards beyond its left flank on Little Round Top. The battlefield also contains markers indicating the left and right flanks of some of the regiments.