.

SHOWN HERE: Co. K, 6TH

Maine Infantry Regiment -- a reduced but effective force -- lined up for inspection

following the discovery by the Provost Guard -- on or about Sept. 12, 1862 -- of A MISSING GOOSE !! It was taken from a farm northwest of Rockville, Maryland ….

… sometime during the Army’s march towards Crampton’s Gap and the Battle of Antietam !!

The newly-edited Memoirs of Pvt. Calif Newton Drew, 6th

Maine Inf., Yankee Scout in the Civil War ….

NOW IDENTIFY at long last the INSTIGATOR , RINGLEADER, AND PERPETRATORS

of this ATROCITY OF WAR and BREACH OF ARMY REGULATIONS !!!

tHE PROVOST GUARD WAS DETERMINED TO GET HIS MAN!

But 6th maine WAS a cohesive fighting unit ….

… NOT A SINGLE MAN WOULD

talk , to betray a fellow soldier -- even under

extreme forms of interrogation !!!

Now it can be told …. HOW

THE MEN OF CO. K, 6TH MAINE INFANTRY, CAPTURED (in broad daylight !)

CONCEALED & COOKED to a crisp …

as the

IS MARCHING NORTH from WASHINGTON CITY, D.C. …. In EARLY SEPTEMBER, 1862 !!!!

“ We came near Tenallytown [ situated near the NW limits of Washington D.C. – Ed.] and got full rations and

other supplys. Even the Paymaster came and paid us three months wages, $39 -- new paper money, but we

could not get into Washington to spend any of it. We got new cloathing & shoes etc.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Tenallytown, D.C. now

Tenleytown, was situated on

the Rockville Turnpike near

the northwestern boundary of

the City of Washington, D.C.

[Image from Colton, Arnold et

al., Topographical Map of the Original District of Columbia and Environs, Showing the Fortifications around the City

of Washington (1862)

(Library of Congress )]

IN ADDITION TO Unkle

Abe’s generous pay of a full

$13/mo., Union Army recruits

also received general issue

(G.I.) boots, socks, packs,

uniforms, & fine weapons – as

well as daily rations of crispy,

crumbly HARDTACK

and savory SOWBELLY [not

shown ….. !!! ]

HOWEVER – dagnabit -- it’s

that consarned, mule-headed

STUBBORNESS of

some of the new troops

of the 6th

Maine Rgt., to

make the necessary adjustment to the Army

Rations of this crisp

HARDTACK and

salted SOWBELLY, that

motivates Pvt. Calif Newton

Drew’s story …

‘On the 7th

of Sept. [1862] we marched to Rockville up the Potomac a peace.1

“The Army is lined up in good shape, little Mc is in command [Again - Ed] we are on the left of the line moving

up the [Potomac] river without paying much attention to reach [Maybe (Capt.) Roach? See following -– Ed.] a

beautiful farming country with good water everywhere. We was getting considerable extry rations as we moved

very slow. We had plenty of time to forage and we improved the opportunity so well that a Provost Guard

marched beside us. This guard was maintained along all lines of marching men – strict orders was given against

forageing or leaving the ranks without a pass from the Capt [ Thomas P. Roach – shown in Cartes de Visite, at

left – Ed.] of the Company – the only exception being when a private had a dozen of a canteens and was going

for water on the march.”

Now above also :

Capt.. Roach, Co. K

6th

Maine Infantry

( Maine State Library)

At right, showing location of camp at Rockville, Maryland, from E & G.W. Blunt’s Corrected

Map of the Washington and the Seat of War on the Potomac (1862) (Library of Congress)

‘Therefore here comes the story of the Confiscated Goose.’

1

ORIGINAL BAD SPELLING HAS BEEN MAINTAINED ! The Memorialist, Pvt. Calif Newton Drew, Co. K 6th

Maine

Infantry, enlisted in the Union Army at age 15, and so never completed high school. The result is, he was a maddeningly

poor speller, who, inter alia, routinely misspells “piece” as “peace” – with sometimes ironic results for a war memoir.

‘One day on the march before the battle of Crampton Gap, the brigade for a few minutes rest[ed] the weather

was hot and the road very dusty.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:

The Union Army under

Gen. George B. McClelland, is

now advancing further up the

Potomac River on the

Maryland side, in the opening

days of the “Maryland

Campaign” which will

culminate in the Battle of

Antietam, on Sept. 17, 1862.

General Winfield Scott

Hancock is in command of a

volunteer brigade, including

the 6th

Maine Inft’y Regt., in

which Pvt. Calif Newton Drew

is a member. In addition, the

brigade includes the 5th

Wisconsin, 19th

Pennsylvania,

and 43rd

New York Infantries,

as well as a battery of NY light

artillery.

In a few days following this

story, Hancock will move his

all-volunteer brigade towards

Crampton’s Gap in the

South Mountains of Maryland,

north of the Potomac river, and

after driving Rebel forces out,

will camp in the narrow

Pleasant Valley, on the night of

Sept. 15th

, before that great

Battle of Antietam Creek.

MEANWHILE …. during the

long march, as Pvt. Drew

relates, the soldiers are fairly

fed-up with their hard-tack and

salt pork, and have begun to

supplement their rations with eggs, corn and other vegetables, apples, peaches and whatever else they can thieve

from farms located along the route. So a Provost Guard has been assigned, and ordered to keep the troops from

pillaging the produce of farmers along the march…..

“In a field some distance from the road was a fine large farmhouse with a well [P. 64] at one side with the old

fashion sweep and pole, to draw water. About halfway between the road and house was a band of geese, the

Provose Guard [sic] sat [on] his horse between the geese and house.”

“Our company Drummer came along to talk with the boys.

He remarked how good a piece2

of roast goose would be for

supper. After a little talk a plan was laid (It had been said those

guards was mighty hard men to beat).”

EDITOR’S NOTE: 6th

Maine Infantry Regiment, Co. K (from

Machias, Maine) included a number of Native American

Indians, including Pvt. Henry C. Denbow, a Pleasant Point

Passamaquoddy Indian (but not shown) who regularly joined

memorialist Pvt. Calif Newton Drew in “scouting for rebs.”

During this period the soldiers were actually re-commissioned

as Majors in the Union Army.

The company’s Indian drummer, the INSTIGATOR of

this INCIDENT, who is featured in the foreground of the

Company K photograph, has so far not been identified.

“I started to execute it.

“We must water up before the afternoon March, so, taking 12 canteens I went to Capt. Roach [ -- Ed.]: he had

come to us [as] we laid at Tanleytown [ Roach had there advised the company of this exception to breaking

formation – Ed.] and got a pass to get water.

“Dan done the same then Bill and one more, I think it was Frank. [Three men, off in sequence, to get water -Ed.]

2

This is perhaps the only time in his Memoirs, that Pvt. Drew correctly spells the word “piece.”

“The drummer had the head of his drum in proper shape. [As in … significantly loosened! See below – Ed.]

“I took the lead, the others followed, 25 or 30 spaces behind each others. As I passed the geese a large gander

attacked me as ganders they always do with his neck extended emitting a hissing that would scared most anything

but a bunch of soldiers on a lark. And that goose did actually take hold of the leg of my pants. I did not like

being bit by a goose – I grabbed it by the neck and swinging it around my head let it drive for Dan’s head.

“He caught it most beautifully twisting its neck; he sent it to Bill who gave its neck a [pretty?] twist, let it go for

Frank, he sent it to the drummer – and he had it in the drum and the [drum]head on and strained in quicktime …

And [he] went to the rear of the line where the drum corps was.”

.

Drum and fife corps, 30th

Maine Vol. Infantry (Hubbard Family Papers)

“Such a time that poor guard had trying to locate that goose, he did not try to arrest any of the actors. All he

wanted was the goose, and being mounted he had to go to a gate some distance from where the goose went over

the fence.”

[P. 65]

“When he began to hunt for

the goose among the men of

the 6th

Maine ….

…they made it lively for him.”

EDITOR’S NOTE :

A careful examination of the

photo of Co. K, 6th

Maine

Infantry reveals tell-tale

details… details that the

Provost Guard must have

somehow overlooked ….

Can you see what the Provost

Guard may have missed?

Our Goose is Cooked –

Don’t Get Caught Stealing ! A Lieutenant of Provose came riding along and he reported

to him he case, that Lieut’ [reported in turn] to Conol

[Hiram] Burnham and demanded the goose. Some of his

men …

“Had stolden what …?” says Burnham. “My men stole a

goose right from under your nose in broad daylight ?”

“I don’t believe it. My men don’t steal…”

While them two were talking Gen’l Hancock came along.

Col. Hiram Burnham

Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock (Library of Congress)

“The Provose Guard was given permission to search the

men of the Co. K, but the Pro’ Guard could not identify

the men or locate the Company. He wanted to search

the whole [6th

Maine] Reg’t.!

“Hancock said, “And if you failed to find it in the 6th

Maine you would [want] to search the whole Brigade?

I think you will have to call around when the boys are

cooking supper -- but I think you must be mistaken bout

the men of the 6th

stealing – they’s Christians.”

“Here Col. Burnham remarked he did not blame the

men for stealing, but they [would be] blame fools to be

caught.

“The colum moved on all the P.M. and that Provose

Guard kep space with the Reg’t – it was 10 o’cl P.M.

when we halted for supper and camped.

“Sometime before daylight the goose was cooked.

“Gen’l Hancock and Cn’l Burnham each got a generous

peace.”

“On the mud campaign that winter when the whole Army was stuck in the mud, and the Colonel killed his cow so

the boys would have something to eat [ See “Mud Campaign,” in YANKEE SCOUT IN THE CIVL WAR !! -- Ed.]

he asked me if I wouldent like a good roast goose.

“He said Hancock asked him how the boys had done the trick.

“I told him all about it, and that we did it to beat that Provose Guard.”

A NOTE TO OUR READERS: The fine photograph of the Co. K, 6th

Maine Infantry, seen above, was

actually taken by famed American photographer Matthew C. Brady, shown over here under

contract with the U.S. War Department, to chronicle the Union Army effort. Despite the

involvement of a number of U.S. Army officers, and even General Winfield Scott Hancock, in

the investigation of “The Confiscated Goose” incident, Mr. Brady was not actually doing

forensic photography when he captured this image. Little did he know …..

Instead, Brady took the photo the following year, probably very early in May, 1863, after the

Battle of Marye’s Heights, also known as the Second Battle of Fredericksburg; the photo was

taken to commemorate the heroism of the men of the 6th

Maine Infantry, who distinguished

themselves for daring and valor, in the storming of the stone wall and taking the works from the rebel army, in the hills above Fredericksburg, April 30, 1863! To learn more about it ….