When Charles Sampson of Bath joined Company D, 3rd Maine Volunteer Infantry as its captain in 1861, his wife Sarah Sampson packed up her things and accompanied the regiment off to war. While officially acting as a nurse, she dressed as a man and in post-war interviews she stated that she "carried a musket.and fought like the rest of them." She joined up, she said, because "slavery was an awful thing and we were determined to fight it down." After being discovered as a woman during the Siege of Petersburg, she stayed with the regiment as a nurse. An unidentified woman served in the 14th Maine until she was found out, whereupon she faded into obscurity. Mary Ann Berry Brown of Lewiston accompanied her husband Ivory Brown into the 31st Maine Volunteer Infantry in 1864. Mary Jane Johnson served in Company I, 16th Volunteer Maine Infantry until she was discovered to be a woman after being captured at Fredericksburg and held in a Confederate prison. Women weren't allowed to serve in the Army in the Civil War but that did not stop some determined Maine women. Maine artillerymen guarded the nation's capitol in Washington, DC, and Maine soldiers would serve as part of the occupying force after the war was over. Maine units also participated in campaigns in Texas, New Orleans, the Carolina coast, and Sherman's March to the Sea. Maine men saw action in every battle with the Army of the Potomac, from First Bull Run to Appomattox. By 1864, Maine had raised thirty-two regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, and eight batteries of artillery. All the units raised by the state were strictly volunteer, in the proud tradition of the National Guard. Maine immediately began raising regiments of infantry and cavalry, as well as batteries of artillery. In 1861, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the Southern rebellion. The state of Maine would have an impact disproportionate to its size. Army and Navy during the Civil War out of a population of 628,279 (1860 Census). Approximately 73,000 Mainers entered the U.S. Maine entered the Civil War with a population smaller than that of most states, but answered the call for troops with a higher proportion of men than any other state in the Union.
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