Lt. Col. Charles Wentworth Roberts of Bangor was promoted to command of the 2nd Maine after General Jameson contracted typhoid which ultimately took his life.
Col. Roberts was in command of the Union 1st Brigade when he had his horse shot
out from under him at 2nd Bull Run. Forced to retire due to ill health in 1863, Col.
Roberts would be nominated to rank of Breveted to Brigadier General by President
Andrew Johnson. An interesting side note is that Roberts had been a prominent War
Democrat in Bangor which was in opposition to the Republican Party which was
supported by another Bangor fellow of some influence named Hannibal Hamlin.
Some believed that Roberts resignation of his command of the 2nd Maine had as
much to do with politics as ill health. Roberts was the Democratic Party candidate
for governor of Maine in 1875 but lost to another Civil War General, Republican
Seldon Connor.
Lock and key from the second
empire style home built after the
war by Roberts on State Street in
Bangor. The house is listed
today on the National Register of
Historic Places.
A signed image of yet another Bangor man, George Varney, who was the third Colonel of the 2nd Maine, all three of whom would attain the rank of Bvt. Brigadier General. He succeeded to command when Roberts stepped down due to ill health on January 10, 1863. Then Lt. Colonel, Varney had led the 2nd at the Battle of Fredericksburg where he received a head wound when struck by a shell fragment.Twice captured by Confederates during his tenure with the 2nd Maine (1st Bull Run then at Gaines Mill ) Varney was an alumni of the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond which oddly enough took its name from another Bangor man, Luther Libby who had removed his family to Richmond in the antebellum period. Acquiring an old tobacco warehouse there, Libby operated a ships chandlery from the old warehouse. Taken over as a Confederate operated prison, the LIBBY sign remained on the building and it was designated as LIBBY PRISON.
