October 17, 1862 Source material for this story is from the
Androscoggin Historical Society. James Nash, of Livermore, had
something in common with the average Maine soldier in the Civil
War. The majority of men who volunteered were farmers. So was
Nash. He owned a small farm in Androscoggin County, and when the
crops were harvested in 1862, he decided to enlist in one of the
state’s nine-month regiments. The time would allow him to serve,
and, with luck, return to Maine just after Spring planting to
tend crops. What set Nash apart from his peers, however, was his
age. The men in Maine’s 23rd Infantry Regiment fit the profile
of almost every Union regiment. The soldiers were mostly between
the ages of 18 and 29, and the average age within a regiment was
25. Nash was physically fit, but he was also 41 years old. The
average life expectancy in the 1860s was around 43 years old.
Commissioned as the Captain of Company I, Nash joined his fellow
enlistees in Portland in late September. The Regiment left Maine
for W