Born in Addison then a resident of Harrington, Maine, Voranus L. Coffin resigned his position as a teacher at the Addison, Harrington and Millbridge, Maine country schools to enlist in the forming and soon to be hard fought, 31st Maine Infantry. Elected as 2nd Lieutenant by his peers of Co. B, and soon promoted to 1st Lieutenant, Coffin would be promoted to Captain for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Cold Harbor. Passing cleanly and unhurt through the ferocity of the great battle at Cold Harbor, Coffin was captured by the Confederates while on picket duty a few days after that battle. He would be transported by his captors to Libby Prison, Richmond, Va. where he was confined for a number of weeks before being removed to Camp Oglethorpe, Macon, Ga. where he remained through July, August and September. Coffin was next imprisoned at Savannah, Ga., and his fourth confinement was at Charleston, S. C., where according to contemporary Eastern newspapers, Yankee prisoners were placed under the fire of Union guns then besieging Charleston. His fifth prison was Camp Sorghum, Columbia, S. C., where he was until Christmas, 1864, when he was removed to the prison stockades in front of the Insane Asylum at Charleston, nicknamed Camp Lunacy. While confined here Coffin and a fellow Mainer, 2 Lt. Henry Bixby of the 9th Maine Infantry made good on an escape plan only to be recaptured sixty miles outside Charleston, S.C. By now, nearly played out, Coffin was sent to the military prison at Raleigh, then to Goldsboro, and then to Wilmington, N. C. where he was at last paroled. Allowed to return to Maine for a thirty day recuperation, Capt. Coffin was ordered to rejoin his 31st Maine Regiment stationed before Petersburg. He would be in command of his Co. B as they marched in the victorious Grand Review in Washington and on their return to Maine at the close of the Civil War. It was recorded that Capt. Voranus L. Coffin was confined in more Confederate prisons than any other Union soldier, commissioned or non-commissioned. In the post Civil War years Coffin was a successful shipyard owner with forty years building schooners, barks, and brigs on his beloved Maine coast. He was active in Maine politics and was a constant figure in the affairs of Civil War veteran organizations. Shown here is his gold Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States medal serial #11906, his Co. B, 31st Maine regimental ladder badge and his veterans 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac badge along with a Grand Army of the Republic ribbon for the Hiram Burnham Post, No. 50 in Cherryville, Maine where Voranus Coffin was Post Commander for three years.