WASHBURN, Maine — Reading about the Civil War in a textbook is one thing; hearing about it from someone who has access to such documents as muster rolls and battlefield reports is quite another.
Secretary of State Matt Dunlap spoke to nearly 130 students from the David J. Lyon Washburn District Elementary School and Washburn District High School May 9 about the impact that Maine had on the Civil War and the impact that the Civil War had on Maine.
As part of an ongoing commemoration by the Maine State Archives of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of America’s Civil War, the secretary of state has created the Sesquicentennial for Schools Program. The intent of the program is to help Maine students get a better understanding of the important part their state played in one of the nation’s most prominent historic events.
“History is a special passion of mine, and I am delighted to work with our State Archivist Dave Cheever to bring history to life for students,” said Dunlap. “The students really respond to stories of Maine’s role in the Civil War, and we have so many detailed archives from the time, we can share vibrant local anecdotes that they relate to, even in the 21st century. I am very proud of the seemingly limitless information contained in our State Archives as we continue to receive new records each month.
“It’s a tremendous amount of fun and it’s a completely different way of looking at history through the records of the state and piecing together what a community looked like 150 years ago and what they were facing historically,” he said. “School kids are the best vector to do that with because a lot of them are studying this right now, but they tend to study it in a very macro-sense — the Fugitive Slave Act and the Battle of Gettysburg. We bring it down to a much narrower level, which is the local level; what was Township 13, Range 3 like in 1860?”
The Maine State Archives holds the most extensive collection of Civil War documents in the nation, including photographs of thousands of Maine soldiers, official papers and correspondence.
As part of Dunlap’s presentation, which included information on the 7th and 10th Maine Regiments, which both served in the Battle of Antietam, among others, the secretary of state explained how much of life today is a result of the Civil War.
“How many of you get mail delivered to your home? Home delivery was a result of the Civil War,” explained Dunlap. “People would come to the post office because that’s where news from the battlefield was sent. The list of those wounded and killed came to the post office, so you’d have all these grieving families hanging around the post office. The postmaster general then decided to have the mail delivered to peoples’ homes which is something that’s still done today.
“Most of you are familiar with money. This was called a ‘greenback’ because of the green colored ink that was used. Almost all money prior to the Civil War was made out of either gold or silver, so they developed paper money to pay the troops for their service,” he said. “Farmers — in particular — really liked paper money. Up until its development, unless you had a pocket full of gold or silver coins, you had to do a lot of bartering. People would trade farm animals for feed corn, for example. Money made it a lot easier because you didn’t have to find somebody who needed corn in order to get a shirt. You could just buy it. Paper money has its roots in the Civil War.”
Dunlap said he enjoyed the Washburn presentation and hoped the students found it worthwhile.
“I hope the kids find themselves asking the question, ‘What’s different?’” he said. “What’s different because of that experience; it’s not just an obelisk in the middle of town of a soldier with a riffle … our heroes of the Union. It’s more than that, and I hope the kids take time to reflect on that?”
Laura Churchill, who teaches grade 6-8 social studies, originally planned to have the Sesquicentennial for Schools Program presented to only her eighth-grade students, but when she realized this may be the only time the program would be offered in Washburn, she invited other grades to attend, as well.
“It’s exciting that our secretary of state was able to come and make the presentation,” said Churchill, who began making plans back in October. “I hope the students will understand that the Civil War wasn’t just in the South; our community was impacted by it, and the whole state of Maine was impacted by it. Hopefully they’ll go home and ask their parents a little bit more and maybe do some research because they may very well have family members who fought in the war.
“The kids get really bored reading about events in textbooks, and Maine is rarely talked about when it comes to things like the Civil War,” she said, “so having the secretary of state be able to connect the two made it more interesting for the students. I’m glad he was able to come up to Aroostook County.”
Due to other events going on in the school, the presentation was held at the Washburn Trail Runners Snowmobile Club.
