Maryland Guide

Maine was so enthusiastic for the cause that it ended up contributing a larger number of combatants, in proportion to its population, than any other Union state. It was second only to Massachusetts in the number of its sailers who served in the U.S. Navy. Maj. Gen. (then Col.) Joshua L. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment played a key role at the Battle of Gettysburg, and the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment lost more men in a single charge (at the Battle of Petersburg) than any Union regiment in the war.

One legacy of the war was Republican Party dominance of state politics for the next half-century and beyond. Moreover, Maine was so reliable a state for the Republicans, and a bellwether at that ("as Maine goes, so goes the nation" was a familiar phrase) that its politicians enjoyed inordinate national influence. In the 50-year period 1861 to 1911 (when Democrats temporarily swept most state offices) Maine Republicans served as Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury (twice), President pre tempore of the Senate, Speaker of the House (twice) and Republican Nominee for the Presidency. This synchronization between the politics of Maine and the nation broke down dramatically in 1936, however, when Maine became one of only two states to vote for the Republican candidate, Alf Landon in Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide re-election. Maine Republicans remain a force in state politics, but have been marginalized nationally because they are considerably more liberal than the party as a whole. The most nationally-influential Maine Republican of the last quarter-century, Defence Secretary and former Senator William Cohen, served as a cabinet member in a Democratic administration.