Steve Bunker              Andrew Spurling and the 1st Maine Cavalry

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Description:

This presentation will highlight Andrew Spurling, Medal of Honor Winner.  It will also descibe some of the little known background of the Congressional Medal of Honor in the Civil War era, as well as other information about the 1st Maine Caavalry and other Medal of Honor winners. 

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Bio:

Steve is Past Commander of the Friends of Union War Veterans of the Civil War, Maritime Historian for the City of Bath, and Commander Emeritus of the 1st Maine Cavalry (reenactors). He is a frequent speaker on both Civil War and Maritime history around the State of Maine and around the country.

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John Cross                   “Into the Maelstrom: Bowdoin College and the American Civil                                                   War”

Description:

It has been said that the Civil War began and ended in Brunswick, bracketed by the writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her home of Federal Street and Joshua Chamberlain’s respectful salute to the surrendering Confederates at Appomattox.  Alternatively, one could argue that the bookends for the war might be the honorary degrees conferred upon Jefferson Davis in 1858 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1865.  The war service of alumni of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine to the Union cause was, as a percentage, among the highest of any college or university in the country.  While some names may be well known (e.g., Joshua Chamberlain, Thomas W. Hyde, or Oliver Otis Howard), the vast majority are not.  I hope to broaden our understanding of the range of experiences of Bowdoin alumni within the context of the war, from abolition to reconstruction.

   

Bio:

John Cross is Secretary of Development and College Relations at Bowdoin College, where he also serves as the unofficial college historian.  A native of Brunswick and a 1976 graduate of Bowdoin, he earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as an archaeologist.  He has conducted archaeological fieldwork in New England, Texas, and Central America, and is currently president of the Maine Archaeological Society.  He is a past president of the Pejepscot Historical Society, which maintains the Joshua Chamberlain House Museum.

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Artur Kalandarov          From the Far North to the Deep South:                                                                 How Bowdoin Students Became Confederate Soldiers

Description:

Despite producing a record number of Union officers and Generals Howard and Chamberlain, Bowdoin College's major role in the Civil War also included 16 Bowdoin graduates who fought for the Confederacy. Based on research from Bowdoin's archives, the lecture discusses what led this unique group of men to oppose their classmates.

 

Bio:

Artur is a student at Bowdoin College, studying History, Political Science, and Russian. He is from New York City. He has previously presented research at the Eastern-European History Symposium (University of Pittsburgh) and the Center on National Security (Fordham Law School).  

  

                     

Mike Bell                      Maine’s Unsung Hero; The Life And Times of  Adelbert                                                            Ames  

Description:         

Adelbert Ames has long suffered in the historical shadow of fellow Mainer, Joshua Chamberlain. His career in the military and politics outrivaled anything Chamberlain accomplished.  And in the end, he was the last general officer of either side to pass away. But it’s a story that few people in his home state recall. That needs to change.                     

 

Bio: 

Mike Bell is an instructor at the Senior College at UMA as well as a sought after lecturer in central Maine and other states. He has had careers in both politics and historical interpretation. When not researching the next class or topic, he can be found skiing, traveling or coaching his son’s soccer and baseball teams

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Steve Garrett              The Story of Two Mainers, Chamberlain and Fernald:  One                                                    Famous, One Not

Description: 

Most Mainers and many Americans know about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  Very few Mainers know who Albert Fernald was.  Both won the Medal of Honor as part of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  Why and how did Chamberlain become so famous and why was Fernald forgotten?   Brief biographies, what did they do to be awarded the MOH, and a comparison of lives of two real heroes.

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Bio:

Life long history buff and current president of the Joshua L. Chamberlain Civil War Round Table.  I became interested in Civil War history through family history.   I had southern relatives on both sides, unionist and rebels, and one great-great uncle who fought for both sides.  That is another story.  And an amazing group of teachers to guide me.

                                       

 

Elizabeth Leonard        Two Civil War Heroines from Maine: Dorothea Dix and                                                                Rebecca Usher 

Descripion:

When we think about the Civil War heroes, we often fail to consider the heroines who did so much to support the war effort and deal with the war's brutal consequences. This talk will focus on the all-important contributions to the Union cause of Dorothea Dix, a well-known reformer born in Hamden, Maine, who became the Union army's Superintendent of Women Nurses in June 1861, and Rebecca Usher, of Hollis, Maine, one of thousands of women nurses Dorothea Dix supervised.

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Bio:

Leonard is the Gibson Professor of History at Colby College, where she has taught for nearly thirty years. She is the author of several books and articles on the Civil War era. Her first two books focused explicitly on women and the war: Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War, and All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies

  

 

Ashley Towle                In Pursuit of “Absolute Justice:” Oliver Otis Howard,                                                             the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the era of Reconstruction    

Description:

This presentation will investigate some of the major developments of the Civil War era through an examination of the life of Oliver Otis Howard. As commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Howard played a vital role in overseeing the transition from slavery to freedom of four million formerly enslaved people following the end of the Civil War. Yet his legacy remains controversial among historians. This presentation will examine the successes, failures, and controversies of Howard’s career.  

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Bio:

Ashley Towle is a lecturer in the History Department at the University of Southern Maine. She received her PhD from the University of Maryland where she worked as a graduate assistant at the Freedmen and Southern Society Project. Her scholarship focuses on the experience of African Americans in the South during the transition from slavery to freedom. She is currently at work on a book that examines African-American mortuary culture in the Reconstruction South. 

 

                             

George Rogers            Sgt. Andrew Jackson Tozier: A Hero Nearly Forgotten 

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Description:

The life of a man who,  like many of his fellow veterans, had his life profoundly altered by his service to his country.  AJ Tozier is a fascinating character, for both his service during the war, and his life after the war.

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Bio:

George has an AB from Bowdoin, and an AMT from Harvard . He is a Navy Veteran, a Retired History Teacher, and a Genealogist with the Historical Society of Litchfield, Maine.

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