Walter G. Morrill: 20th Maine Infantry

Walter Goodale Morrill

1841-1935

Private, 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry
2nd Lieutenant, Company A, 6th Maine Volunteer Infantry
Captain, Company B, Lieutenant Colonel, 20th Maine
Volunteer Infantry
Congressional Medal of Honor

Well, now... Most of your probably know about Captain Walter Morrill of Company B, 20th Maine Infantry. So you know that Colonel Chamberlain, having been assigned to cover the extreme left of the Army of the Potomac on Little Round Top, sent out Morrill and Company B to guard his extreme left against a flanking attack. Walter and the boys disappeared off into the woods and weren't heard from again for a long time. Chamberlain figured they must have been captured during the successive attcks on the 20th's position. But at the critical moment of the last assault of the 15th Alabama, just as Colonel Oates' boys may have been starting to fall back and retreat - up popped Morrill and his men! Oates wasn't sure if he had been flanked - he noticed that some of the 15th Alabama boys seemed to have been shot in the back! And as he later said about this moment: "We ran like a herd of cattle!"

A lot of folks think that the role of Company B was critical in the eventual outcome of the fight for Little Round Top. If you visit Gettysburg National Park nowadays, you can see the little marker for Company B on land recently acquired through the efforts of The Friends of the Park and others.

But Walter didn't win the Congressional Medal of Honor for that action. Four months later at the Battle of Rappahannock Station, Walter was in command of about 50 skirmishers from the 20th Maine. He discovered that his old Regiment, the 6th Maine, was about to charge the Rebel works; and figuring his old buddies might need a hand, he led his boys into the fray!

Nobody thought too much about it at the time, but 35 years later, March 28, 1898, Walter opened a package addressed to him at the Post Office in his hometown of Pittsfield, Maine.. It contained the Congressional Medal of Honor - awarded to him for his deeds at Rappahannock Station.

Walter was wounded by a spent bullet at The Wilderness, that smashed through the side of his face. He figured he was a goner, and so did the fellows who helped him over to a tree to wait for the end. Time passed. No band of angels came to carry him Home, so Walter probed around in his mouth, felt a lump and with his own fingers, plucked out the minie ball that didn't kill him, in spite of tremendous loss of blood. Instead, he got a medical furlough, went home to Maine, and got married!

The only after effects were that the ball destroyed his sinuses. He was never able to smell or taste much of anything for the rest of his life. And the rest of his life was colorful. He became a renowned promoter on the Maine harness racing scene, organizing races all over the state including controversial and (naturally) smash-hit contests featuring female drivers!

But "The Grand Old Man Of Harness Racing" never lost the respect of his fellow citizens. One of our patrons actually remembers Walter Morrill very well; and told us about an occasion where he was in a barber shop to get a haircut when Walter walked in. Every man in the shop stood up and said "Good morning, Colonel."

A final bit: Walter was among the first inhabitants of Pittsfield to be taken up for a plane ride. The pilot recalled the vivid sight of the old man clutching the sides of the open cockpit two-seater, and peering through his goggles with his whiskers streaming past his ears. When asked what he thought about it all, Walter replied "purty risky!"

Sources for this yarn: James B. Vickery of Bangor, Maine, whose boyhood memories include Walter Morrill; Records of the Adjutant General of Maine in the Maine State Archives; Pittsfield On The Sebasticook by Sanger M. Cook, Bangor, 1966; No Rich Man's Sons: The Sixth Maine Volunteer Infantry by James H. Mundy, Harp Publications, 1994, and conversations between Mr. Mundy and the Archives staff.

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