Bangor’s battle memorials can train us about those that died within the line of responsibility
This story was initially revealed in Might 2019.
As folks throughout the nation pay tribute this Memorial Day to these misplaced within the line of responsibility, right here in Bangor, Mainers pays tribute at any of the ten battle memorials put in across the metropolis — from a Civil Struggle memorial that’s one of many oldest within the nation, to newer memorials that provide customized methods to honor the fallen. The place are these memorials? Who do they memorialize? And who’re a number of the particular Bangor-area people, misplaced in fight, whose lives and repair we are able to find out about?
Civil Struggle
There are a selection of Bangor-area Civil Struggle veterans buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, together with many who died in fight, comparable to Maj. Stephen Decatur Carpenter, a Bangor native whose loss of life in battle in 1864 spurred the creation of the Soldier’s Monument, a granite obelisk that stands close to the State Avenue entrance to the cemetery. The monument is among the first Civil Struggle memorials within the nation, and Carpenter was initially buried beneath it, although his stays had been later moved to a unique plot in Mount Hope.
The Grand Military of the Republic lot was devoted in 1907 to accommodate the numerous Civil Struggle veterans who handed on within the early twentieth century — the Soldier’s Monument lot had grow to be full. The GAR lot includes a recreation of a Civil Struggle fort and several other naval cannons, alongside extra graves of the fallen.
Additionally buried at Mount Hope is Maj. Gen. Daniel Chaplin, the Mainer who led the first Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment. Chaplin attained the rank of Colonel in July 1862, lower than 18 months after enlisting within the military as a non-public. In June 1864, he led the first Maine in a cost towards Accomplice fortifications in the course of the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, which resulted within the best single lack of life by a Union Regiment in a single motion. Seven officers and 108 males had been killed, and one other 25 officers and 464 males wounded. Chaplin survived the cost, however died two months later on the Battle of Deep Backside.
In 1962 a 3rd Civil Struggle memorial was devoted at Mount Hope — the Second Maine Memorial, raised in honor of Second Maine Regiment of Volunteers. The primary Maine males to see motion within the battle, the Second Maine misplaced greater than 800 males over the course of 10 battles, from Bull Run to Chancellorsville. Each the GAR lot and the Second Maine memorial had been funded by a bequest from Col. Luther Peirce, a Bangor native who joined the Second Maine and fought at Bull Run and different battles, and who can be buried at Mount Hope.
Spanish-American Struggle
Thirty years after the Civil Struggle, the Spanish-American Struggle was one of many least bloody conflicts in U.S. historical past. Maine — or, at the least, a ship with the state’s namesake — performed a serious function within the battle, because the supposed bombing of the united statesS. Maine by the Spanish in Havana, Cuba kickstarted the battle. In Bangor, the united statesS. Maine and the Spanish-American Struggle are memorialized with a granite construction at Davenport Park on the nook of Cedar and Principal Streets, with the ship’s defend and a few of its scrollwork affixed to it.
World Struggle I
The Struggle Memorial in Norumbega Parkway, between Central and Franklin streets in downtown Bangor, was raised in 1939, about 20 years after World Struggle I ended, and two years earlier than the U.S. turned concerned in World Struggle II. It honors Maine’s battle useless throughout World Struggle I with the spectacular statue of Girl Victory, which was funded by the Veterans of International Wars and sculpted by Charles Tefft. That’s the artist who additionally sculpted Hannibal Hamlin in Kenduskeag Parkway, and the Peirce Memorial on Harlow Avenue, subsequent to the Bangor Public Library.
World Struggle II
The State of Maine World Struggle II Memorial was raised at 405 Perry Highway, the location of the Cole Land Transportation Museum, in 1997, devoted to the greater than 41,000 Mainers who served within the battle, and the two,551 who gave their lives in fight. The statue of a soldier driving a jeep was made within the likeness of Charles A. Flanagan, a Bangor native killed in motion in November 1944. In 2012, a second memorial was raised on the Cole Museum, honoring particularly the greater than 110 Bangor males who died in World Struggle II.
Along with the World Struggle II Memorial on the Cole Land Transportation Museum, there’s a naval memorial, the Bangor Victory Platoon plaque, positioned at Davenport Park on Cedar Avenue. The plaque honors 56 Mainers — all of them aged 17 — who all joined the Navy in August 1943, and who all served collectively on the plane service U.S.S. Wasp. All got here residence, apart from SN 1st Class Gilbert Soucy, a Portage native who was killed in motion on March 19, 1945, as Wasp supported the Marines on Iwo Jiwa.
Korean Struggle
Among the many most eye-catching of battle memorials in Maine is the Korean Struggle Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery, which honors the 245 Mainers killed in the course of the Korean Struggle. The memorial, erected in 1995 by the Burton-Goode-Sargent Chapter of the Korean Struggle Veterans of America, options two rows of flags, a cultured granite slab bearing the names of the Maine Korean Struggle useless, and the Victor’s Walkway, paved with inscribed stones.
Vietnam Struggle
The Cole Land Transportation Museum can be the location of the Maine Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was devoted on Memorial Day 2004 in reminiscence of Maine’s Vietnam Struggle useless, together with 14 from Bangor. The memorial includes a granite stone engraved with all 339 killed or lacking in motion, and a statue of an injured Vietnam soldier being carried by one other soldier and a nurse. The injured soldier is a portrayal of Eric Michael Wardwell, a Bucksport native killed in fight in September 1967 in Vietnam. A Huey helicopter and an M-60 Tank are additionally put in outdoors on the museum, as is a Purple Coronary heart Memorial, honoring all veterans of all wars.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Presently, there is no such thing as a public memorial to both the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and the greater than 50 Mainers who’ve died throughout each ongoing conflicts. There have been quite a lot of occasions honoring fallen troopers, however a statue, plaque or different construction has not but been raised.
That mentioned, Mainers have discovered distinctive and equally shifting methods to honor misplaced troopers within the post-Sept. 11, 2001, conflicts. The Summit Venture, for instance, supplies a residing memorial to the state’s latest battle casualties, with an annual occasion over Memorial Day Weekend. Engraved stones, every memorializing a soldier who died in service, are taken by bike convoy from Portland to Baxter State Park, the place hikers then carry every stone to the summit of Mount Katahdin. Different stones have been carried to the highest of Cadillac, in addition to to the summits of Everest, Kilimanjaro and Denali.
