by Stephen “Dookie” Fox, Fifth Maine Museum staff

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Union Army sent a detachment of the 1st United

States Colored Troops (USCT) under Captain James M. Moore, Assistant Quartermaster to

the U.S. Army to Andersonville Prison, to catalogue the dead. Andersonville was a

notorious Confederate-run prison in Georgia where Union prisoners-of-war were sent.

Moore was fortunate to meet up with Clara Barton and Dorance Atwater.

Atwater had been a prisoner at Andersonville, and served as clerk for Doctor Isaiah

White, Surgeon in Charge of the prison. One of his jobs had been to catalog the dead.

Paroled in February of 1865, Atwater returned home to Connecticut. Unbeknownst to the

Confederates, Atwater created a duplicate list of the dead that he kept hidden. It was from

this list that helped Moore and Barton identify the dead and bury them in marked graves.

The list, though containing some errors, is the most complete and accurate roster of those

that perished in the horrible conditions of Andersonville. It lists the fallen by state, and

includes men from all branches of service, all Union and Border states, and even some

from Confederate states.

Six men of the 5th Maine gave their lives for the cause, not in battle, but from the

conditions in Andersonville. They were buried on site in numbered graves, at what is now

known as the Andersonville National Cemetery. Fortunately, they are remembered, as they

are memorialized in their respective company windows in our Memorial Hall. They are:

1) Enoch M. Brown, Company G. Believed captured near Bristoe Station, V A on

September 15, 1863. Died March 31, 1864. Buried in grave 269.

2) William Connolly/Connoly (listed as Conley). Company F. Captured at the Battle

of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. Died September 6, 1864. Buried in grave 8037.

3) George Devine (listed as Dunnie). Company G. Captured at the Battle of

Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. Died August 29, 1864. Buried in grave 7240.

4) Sergeant Thomas Spencer Peabody. Company I. Captured near Rapidan River /

Wilderness on December 14, 1863. Died June 20, 1864. Buried in grave 2272.

5) Private Miles (also Milo) C. Walker. Company I. Captured at the Battle of Chancellorsville

on May 3, 1863. Died July 24, 1864. Buried in grave 3894.

6) Private (Corporal) Alanson M. Whitman (listed as Whiteman). Company I . Captured

near Rapidan River / Wilderness on December 14, 1863. Died August 2, 1864. Buried in

grave 4559.

We thank them for their sacrifice.