Curt Mildner of Kennebunk last presented to us in November, 2005, on George Berry of the 5th Maine Regiment. Curt became obsessed with this soldier after buying a Civil War cartridge box on e-Bay, which was inscribed "GL Berry D 5 Me." Curt discovered George Berry’s letters in the Miami University archives.
Curt has expanded his interest to include first-hand accounts of the experiences of soldiers like George Berry. He has traveled to many small town museums and libraries in Maine, and also explored the National Archives and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in quest of letters, diaries, memoirs, and official reports written by Maine soldiers about their experiences serving in the Army. Curt has also traveled to many of the battlefields to study the ground the soldiers fought over, and walked the routes taken by the soldiers to the battlefields. Curt also became a re-enactor to understand the marching and maneuvering the soldiers had to master.
Curt’s presentation did focus on the letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, and official reports that are the primary sources for each soldier’s war experiences. These provide a picture into the mind of the Maine soldier; what was on their minds, and what issues of the day concerned them. They expressed their opinions about Lincoln, their commanders, camp life, bad food, tentmates, slavery, and other issues important to them. Curt has found that some of his preconceptions have been shattered when the documents are studied in relation to the times in which they were written.
Curt is a member of our Round Table. He owns Market Decisions, a research business in Portland, and lives in Kennebunk. He’s a member of the 3rd Maine re-enactors.