8th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment

The 8th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 8th Maine Infantry was organized in Augusta, Maine and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on September 7, 1861.

The regiment was attached to Viele's 1st Brigade, General Thomas West Sherman's South Carolina Expeditionary Corps, October 1861 to April 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Department of the South, to November 1862. District of Beaufort, South Carolina, X Corps, Department of the South, to April 1863. District of Hilton Head, South Carolina, X Corps, Department of the South, to November 1863. District of Beaufort, South Carolina, X Corps, to April 1864. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, X Corps, Army of the James, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to May 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, X Corps, to June 1864, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XVIII Corps, to December 1864. 4th Brigade, 1st Division, XXIV Corps, to May 1865. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XXIV Corps, May 1865. 2nd Brigade. 1st Division, XXIV Corps, to August 1865. Department of Virginia to January 1866.

The 8th Maine Infantry mustered out of service January 18, 1866.

Detailed service

Left Maine for New York September 10, then moved to Washington, D.C. Moved to Annapolis, Md., October 6, 1861. Expedition to Port Royal, S.C., October 21-November 7. Capture of Forts Walker and Beauregard, Port Royal Harbor. November 7. Hilton Head November 8-9. Duty at Hilton Head until February 1862. Five companies ordered to Dafuskie Island, S.C., February 14. Siege operations against Fort Pulaski until April 11. Bombardment and capture of Fort Pulaski April 10-11. Duty at Hilton Head Beaufort, S.C., until March 1863. Expedition to Jacksonville, Fla., March 18-23. Operations near Jacksonville March 23-31. Reconnaissance toward Baldwin March 25. Skirmish near Jacksonville March 25. Moved to Beaufort, S.C., March 31-April 1. Expedition against Charleston April 3-12. Moved to Hilton Head, S.C., April 16, and duty there until November 14. Moved to Beaufort, S.C., November 14, and duty there until April 1864. Veterans on furlough March and April. Moved to Fortress Monroe, Va., April 14. Butler's operations on south side of James River and against Petersburg and Richmond May 4-28. Occupation of City Point and Bermuda Hundred May 5. Port Walthall May 6-7. Swift Creek May 9-10. Arrow field Church, Chester Station, May 10. Operations against Fort Darling May 12-16. Drury's Bluff May 14-16. Bermuda Hundred front May 17-28. Moved to White House Landing May 28-June 1. Rapidan Campaign June 1-15. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Before Petersburg June 15-19. Siege of Petersburg and Richmond June 16, 1864 to April 2, 1865. Mine Explosion, Petersburg, July 30, 1864 (reserve). Non-veterans left front September 4, 1864, and mustered out September 15, 1864. Chaffin's Farm September 28-30. Battle of Fair Oaks October 27-28. Duty in trenches north of James River before Richmond until March 27, 1865. Moved to Hatcher's Run March 27-28. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9. White Oak Road March 30-31. Assault and capture of Forts Gregg and Whitwoth April 2. Fall of Petersburg April 2. Pursuit of Lee April 3-9. Rice's Station April 6. Appomattox C. H. April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. Duty at Richmond, Va., until August; at Manchester until November, and at Fortress Monroe until January, 1866.

Casualties

The regiment lost a total of 381 men during service; 6 officers and 128 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 4 officers and 243 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

• Colonel Henry Boynton
• Colonel William Miltimore McArthur
• Colonel John D. Rust

See also

• List of Maine Civil War units
• Maine in the American Civil War

References

• Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
• Sawtelle, Daniel W. All's For the Best: The Civil War Reminiscences and Letters of Daniel W. Sawtelle, Eighth Maine Volunteer Infantry (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press), 2001. ISBN 1-57233-136-4
• Ulmer, George T. Adventures and Reminiscences of a Volunteer; or, A Drummer Boy from Maine (Chicago: s.n.), 1892.
• Stafford, Morgan Hewitt "A genealogy of the Kidder family comprising the descendants in the male line of Ensign James Kidder, 1626-1676" (Tuttle Publishing Co.) ISBN, 0740406248, 9780740406249

Attribution

• This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.