“We respect the flag, but…”: Opposition to the Civil War in Down East Maine

Timothy F. Garrity, Executive Director, Mount Desert Island Historical Society

Recently published as a journal article in Maine History, this talk is given by Mount Desert Island Executive Director Tim Garrity, a master’s degree candidate in History at the University of Maine. While in popular memory “Maine is counted among the northern states most solidly supportive of the Union cause,” not all Mainers supported the War. Many people in Down East Maine—overwhelmingly rural, native, and Protestant at the time—simply wanted to be left alone, and opposed the War largely for pragmatic reasons.