Abial Hall Scribner Edwards

Age 19, a textile mill worker from Casco, Cumberland County, ME, he enlisted on 6 September 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company K, 10th Maine Infantry on 4 October.

He was with his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He mustered out on 7 May 1863 but enlisted again, in September 1863 and mustered on 13 November as a Corporal in Company K of the 29th Maine Infantry. He was listed as absent, sick when the regiment mustered out, and was discharged on 21 June 1866, after serving the final year in South Carolina.

By 1870 he was a chair dealer in Chelsea, MA. He died relatively young at age 34 in 1877.

His service from the Maine Adjutant General1 and the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Card Index, 1861-1865 from the Maine State Archives, online from FamilySearch, both as Abial H Edwards. His presence at Antietam from a November 1862 letter he wrote home, from a feature about him online from the US Army Heritage & Education Center, source also of his picture. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Anna Lucinda Conant (1842-1905) in October 1869 and they had 3 children.

His wartime letters to Anna were published in Dear Friend Anna: The Civil War Letters of a Common Soldier From Maine (1992) edited by Beverly Hayes Kallgren and James L. Crouthamel. Ms. Kallgren also edited the follow-up Abial & Anna: The Life of a Civil War Veteran As Told in Family Letters (1996) with their post-war correspondence.

05/28/1843; Casco, ME

10/15/1877; Casco, ME; burial in Green Grove Cemetery, Casco, ME