T O D A Y - Berwick Academy

48First: Five Berwick Academystudents, two from Georgia, one fromTexas, one from North Carolina, andone who was born and raised in SouthBerwick, educated at Berwick Academy,and whose brother was preceptorof Berwick Academy, fought forthe Confederacy. In my opinion, theydeserve as much a place in the honoringof the Berwick Academy veteransas the ones who fought for the Union.General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlainset the precedent for this whenhe called the troops in his commandto attention and to the “carry,” themarching salute, at the formal surrenderof the Army of Northern Virginiaat Appomattox Court House, Virginia,in April 1865. The salute was returnedby the surrendering Confederates beforethey laid down their arms, “honoranswering honor” (Chamberlain. “Bayonet!Forward,” Chapter 6, Appomattox).Second: Wendy Pirsig toldme that there is an African-Americanfamily buried in the Pleasant HillCemetery on Wadleigh Lane. (I livedacross the street for over thirty yearsand didn’t know that). There is a GAR(Grand Army of the Republic) markeron the gravesite. Their descendantshave contacted the Old Berwick HistoricalSociety to see if they couldconfirm any Civil War service. I wasable to find that Augustus L., GeorgeW., and William H. Williams registeredfor the draft in June of 1863 andthat Augustus had enlisted in the 1stRegiment Louisiana Cavalry, Corp deAfrique, Company B in October of1863. This regiment was changed tothe 4th United States Colored Cavalryin April of 1864. How he got to LouisianaI couldn’t find out, but most likelyby ship or down the Ohio and MississippiRivers by river boat. The riverswere controlled by the Union by then.Third: There were three soldiersfrom South Berwick (one was alsoa student at BA) that were captured andwere sent to Andersonville Prison inGeorgia. Two of them died and wereburied there. The other survived andreturned home. One can only imaginewhat effect this had on the rest of hislife.Then there is the story of the27th Maine Infantry. It was a ninemonthregiment that was made upprimarily of York County and someOxford County residents. Practicallyall of the enlistees from South Berwickwere in Company B. Their termof service was done at the end of June1863. Congress, knowing of Lee’smarch north, voted to give the wholeregiment the Medal of Honor if theywould stay beyond their term to helpdefend Washington, DC. About halfsaid yes and stayed until the threat toWashington that culminated in TheBattle of Gettysburg was over, whilethe others went home. Medals of Honorfor the entire regiment were sent tothe Commanding Officer for distribution.He gave the medals only to theones who stayed in Washington. Therest have never been found. This controversybecame moot after a governmentcommission reviewed all Medalsof Honor in 1917 and rescinded the27th Maine’s, as well as many othersthat were not given for bravery in battle.John J. Pullen’s “A Shower of Stars”tells the whole story. A connection toB.A. is that John Brown and GranvilleHasty, members of the regiment, wereGladys Hasty Carroll’s great-grandfatherand great-uncle respectively.I know that the list of veteransis only 90 to 95 percent accurate.(I may be too generous here.) Therewere a few individuals, particularlyout of state students from BA,who hadmore than one veteran with the samename and middle initial. These I didnot include. By the same token, I mayhave included a few who were not veteransbut had the same name as thosewho were.Here I sit, a thousand milesaway from South Berwick, communicatingby email and able to look at somany sources of information almostinstantaneously. This project probablywould have taken months back in theday of pay phones, US Postal Service,and travel to search the archives fromMaine to Wisconsin to Georgia toTexas and places in between. I’ve beenable to do all that sitting at my desk.Students today have no idea how fortunatethey are to have the internet.Again I would like to thankRachel and Wendy for all their help.This project couldn’t have been donewithout them. Their rapid replies tomy questions and comments reallysped things along.There is one more thank you I have to give. That is to Marie Donahue, myfreshman, junior, and senior English teacher. People say that there is one teacher younever forget. Miss D. was that one for me. I didn’t find out for many years she hadan interest in the Civil War. She was not interested in just the battles; she had greatsympathy for the soldiers on both sides because of the conditions they endured. Weswapped books on the subject, and she gave me some notes and articles that I usedin the project. The last time I spoke to her was in 2006 when my wife and I were intown for a visit. At that time she was too ill for company, but we were able to have ashort conversation on the phone. She was a positive influence on so many.Arthur Stansfield ‘56Lexington, KentuckyApril 30, 2012Visit www.berwickacademy.org/civilwar to view the list of BA and South Berwick Civil War Veterans orcontact Kathryn Strand at 207.384.6307 to request a printed copy.2012 Alumni Weekend - Mark Ruddy ’’77 Art ExhibitLike many BA postgraduatestudents in the1970s, Mark Ruddy washere to play hockey. Butsomething happened whenhe stepped into CharlesAndres’ art classroomin Fogg Memorial.Mr.Andres nurtured Mark’sinterest in drawing andhelped him developa portfolio. Fouryears later, Markgraduated from UNHwith a Bachelor ofFine Arts degreeand went on to workas an illustrator, graphicartist, and muralist.In 1989 he received hisfirst portrait commissionand over the yearshas produced numerouscommissioned portraits,including adults, childrenand cherished pets.We are honored to exhibitMark’s portraitsin the Jackson LibraryGallery for the monthof September and invitethe entire BA communityto view them.In caseyou were wondering, Markstill plays hockey andparticipated in lastyear’s alumni game.“I am fascinatedwith the unique characterof every face Isee.” - Mark Ruddy49