United States Regiments & Batteries > Maine
Of all the regiments in the United States Army in the Civi War the First Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment sustained the greatest loss in battle, losing 23 officers and 400 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded; 260 also died of disease, a total of 683.
The regiment is honored by a monument on the Petersburg battlefield, where it suffered the greatest single day’s loss in killed and mortally wounded of any regiment in the Civil War.
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1862
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| Organized at Bangor | |
| August 21 | Organized at Bangor as the 18th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment and mustered in |
| August 24 | Left State for Washington, D.C. |
| August 26 | Duty in the Defences of Washington, building and garrisoning batteries and forts. Eight Companies at Fort Alexandria, Company E at Batteries Vermont and Mattox, Company K at Batteries Cameron and Parrott. |
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1863
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| January 6 | Designation changed to 1st Heavy Artillery |
| February | Attached to 2nd Brigade, Haskins’ Division, 22nd Army Corps. Defences North of the Potomac |
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1864
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| January | Company L organized |
| February | Company M organized |
| May 15 | Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac and Moved to Belle Plains, Va. as a part of Tyler’s Heavy Artillery Division. |
| May 18 | Rapidan Campaign |
| May 24 | Attached to 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 2nd Army Corps |
| May 19 |
Harris’ Farm, Fredericksburg RoadThe regiment lost 82 killed, 394 wounded, and 5 missing; total 481 |
| May 20-23 | On line of North Anna |
| May 23-26 | North Anna |
| May 26-28 | On line of the Pamunkey River |
| May 23-31 | Totopotomoy |
| June 1-5 |
Cold Harbor |
| June 5-12 | Barker’s Mills |
| June 16-19 | Before Petersburg |
| June 18 |
Hare’s House, Assault on PetersburgSustained the greatest loss of any one Regiment in any one action of the war: 635 killed and wounded out of 900 engaged. From the wayside marker on the Petersburg battlefield: The field became a burning, seething, crashing, hissing hell, in which human courage, flesh and bone were struggling with an impossibility.… At 4:30 p.m. on June 18, 1864, this regiment of former garrison troops charged across this field toward the Confederate lines near Colquitt’s Salient. As they moved, their supports — veteran regiments who knew the folly of attacking entrenched positions — huddled under cover, leaving the 1st Maine to attack alone. Confederate musketry and artillery devastated the regiment. For the next ten minutes, the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery lost the equivalent of a man each second: 632 men killed and wounded (out of almost 900 engaged), more than any other regiment in any other single battle of the war. The Confederates, behind earthworks, lost just 25. |
| June 16 | Siege of Petersburg |
| June 22-23 | Weldon Railroad |
| June 24 – July 23 | Picket duty at Deserted House |
| July | Attached to 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 2nd Army Corps |
| July 27-29 | Demonstration on north side of James River |
| July 27-28 | Deep Bottom |
| July 29 – August 12 |
Duty at Hare’s House |
| August 13-20 | Demonstration on north side of James River |
| August 14-18 |
Second Battle of Deep Bottom (Strawberry Plains)Colonel Chaplin was mortally wounded by a sharpshooter and would die four days later in a Philadelphia hospital. |
| August 19 | Near Fort Sedgwick |
| September 30 – October 2 |
Poplar Springs Church |
| October 1 | Yellow House |
| October 2 | Squirrel Level Road |
| October 6-24 | At Fort Sedgwick |
| October 27-28 | Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher’s Run |
| December 7-12 | Warren’s Hicksford Raid |
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1865
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| February 5-7 |
Battle of Hatcher’s Run |
| March 25 | Armstrong House |
| March 28-April 9 | Appomattox Campaign |
| March 29 | South Side Railroad |
| March 29-31 | Boydton Road and White Oak Ridge |
| April 2 | Fall of Petersburg |
| April 5 | Jettersvtlle |
| April 6 | Amelia Springs and Sailor’s Creek |
| April 7 | Farmville |
| April 9 |
Appomattox Court HouseSurrender of Lee and his army. |
| May 9-16 | Moved to Washington, D.C. |
| May 23 | Grand Review |
| June | Attached to 3rd Brigade, Hardin’s Division, 22nd Corps |
| June 27 | Garrison Forts in the Defences of Washington from Fort Washington to Fort Mahone |
| September 11 | Mustered out and ordered to Bangor, Me. |
| September 20 | Discharged |