This story was initially revealed in Could 2019.
As individuals throughout the nation pay tribute this Memorial Day to these misplaced within the line of obligation, right here in Bangor, Mainers will pay tribute at any of the ten battle memorials put in across the metropolis — from a Civil Warfare memorial that’s one of many oldest within the nation, to newer memorials that supply customized methods to honor the fallen. The place are these memorials? Who do they memorialize? And who’re among the particular Bangor-area people, misplaced in fight, whose lives and repair we are able to study?
Civil Warfare
There are a variety of Bangor-area Civil Warfare veterans buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, together with many who died in fight, comparable to Maj. Stephen Decatur Carpenter, a Bangor native whose dying 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 Warfare memorials within the nation, and Carpenter was initially buried beneath it, although his stays had been later moved to a special plot in Mount Hope.
The Grand Military of the Republic lot was devoted in 1907 to accommodate the numerous Civil Warfare veterans who handed on within the early twentieth century — the Soldier’s Monument lot had grow to be full. The GAR lot contains a recreation of a Civil Warfare 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 in opposition to Accomplice fortifications throughout the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, which resulted within the biggest 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 Warfare 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 also be buried at Mount Hope.
Spanish-American Warfare
Thirty years after the Civil Warfare, the Spanish-American Warfare 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 usS. Maine by the Spanish in Havana, Cuba kickstarted the battle. In Bangor, the usS. Maine and the Spanish-American Warfare are memorialized with a granite construction at Davenport Park on the nook of Cedar and Fundamental Streets, with the ship’s protect and a few of its scrollwork affixed to it.
World Warfare I
The War Memorial in Norumbega Parkway, between Central and Franklin streets in downtown Bangor, was raised in 1939, about 20 years after World Warfare I ended, and two years earlier than the U.S. grew to become concerned in World Warfare II. It honors Maine’s battle lifeless throughout World Warfare 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 Warfare II
The State of Maine World Warfare II Memorial was raised at 405 Perry Street, the positioning 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 Warfare II.
Along with the World Warfare II Memorial on the Cole Land Transportation Museum, there’s a naval memorial, the Bangor Victory Platoon plaque, situated 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 provider U.S.S. Wasp. All got here residence, aside 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 Warfare
Among the many most eye-catching of battle memorials in Maine is the Korean Warfare Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery, which honors the 245 Mainers killed throughout the Korean Warfare. The memorial, erected in 1995 by the Burton-Goode-Sargent Chapter of the Korean Warfare Veterans of America, options two rows of flags, a refined granite slab bearing the names of the Maine Korean Warfare lifeless, and the Victor’s Walkway, paved with inscribed stones.
Vietnam Warfare
The Cole Land Transportation Museum can also be the positioning of the Maine Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was devoted on Memorial Day 2004 in reminiscence of Maine’s Vietnam Warfare lifeless, together with 14 from Bangor. The memorial contains 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 isn’t any 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 a variety of occasions honoring fallen troopers, however a statue, plaque or different construction has not but been raised.
That stated, Mainers have discovered distinctive and equally transferring methods to honor misplaced troopers within the post-Sept. 11, 2001, conflicts. The Summit Project, for instance, gives 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.
