Archibald Leavitt was one of the 3,184 men and boys from Maine who were killed or mortally wounded in the Civil War. His summary record card partially tells us what happened to him. You will note that there is a notation that says "*See Commission Book." We have Commission Books from this period, but we have been unable to locate the particular entry to which the card refers. It may have referred to conflicting information that appeared in the original regimental rolls. Arch's regiment, the 16th Maine, was on the move at the time Arch died in Washington, and they may not have had gotten accurate word of his death. In any case, there are discrepancies between the card and his obituary about the date of his death, and also differs with the information the folks back home in Turner received. The fight at Laurel Hill was part of the Wilderness Campaign which Grant conducted against Lee in May and June, 1864.

"Waterville College" was the original name of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. You can see that Arch Leavitt was a very promising young man. What do you think about his loss and the other lives that were lost during this War?

Arch Leavitt, as you can see, is buried in the Howes Corner Cemtery. While we do not have a map of that cemetery, we do have maps of many of the cemteries around Maine, such as this one for the Turner Village Cemetery. With a copy of this map, take a walk through and visit the graves of other Civil War veterans (marked with a "C" on each lot on the map with a Civil War veteran). How many were from the 16th? What other regiments were represented? Research the history of those regiments to see what they did.