Three brave Mainers described as “brothers”: To a farmer and his wife living in rural Eastbrook during the Civil War, “family” apparently meant more than just their own children.

Befitting the Christmas season, snow covers the ground at Eastbrook Center Cemetery, adjacent to the Eastbrook Baptist Church built in 1860. The sky spits snowflakes this December day, and small American flags ensconced in their bronze markers beside veterans’ graves resemble red, white, and blue flowers in the gray gloom.

One flag stands beside a monument resembling a small obelisk that stands about a man’s height. Likely set perpendicular to the ground in the 19th century, the monument leans southeastward now. The weather and time have rendered the once startling white granite monument the hue of dried soil.

Inscribed on the base facing Route 200 (the state road through Eastbrook) is the monument’s raison d’etre: “ERECTED to the memory of three Brothers who fought, bled and Died in their Country’s Defence.” Inscribed counterclockwise on the three other sides are the brothers’ names: Orrin A. Butler, Geo.[rge] L. Butler, and Charles H. Springer.

Butlers and a Springer, brothers? Did a parent remarry and have an additional child or children with the new spouse? Research indicates the answer’s “no,” but there’s more to this story of three heroes who gave their all.

Charles T. and Eliza Googins Butler of Eastbrook had several children, including Orrin and George by the time that Charles died in the 1850s. According to the U.S. Census for Eastbrook, George, Orrin, and brothers Charles and Tyler lived with Eastbrook farmer George Springer and his wife, Elisabeth in 1860. The household included the Springers’ children, Henry (22) and Acenith (20).

Like Henry Springer, George and Orrin were employed as laborers. There’s no mention of Charles H. Springer, then 21 or so. Was he a George-and-Elisabeth offspring who had already left home? If so, I could not locate him, but the front inscriptions on the Butler/Springer monument tells us that whoever paid for the monument viewed Charles, George, and Orrin as “brothers.”

Let’s consider them as such. Perhaps they were cousins, but placing ourselves with the Springers during the Civil War and its aftermath, we likely see the trio as brothers. Their joint relationships were that close.

The first brother to enlist was Orrin, age 21, on August 29, 1861. He mustered as a private in Co. G, 8th Maine Infantry Regiment on September 7. Born in Eastbrook, the unmarried Orrin still lived and worked there as a lumberman. Standing 5-10, he had blue eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy complexion. He went with the 8th Maine to various fights and locales along the Confederacy’s Atlantic coast. We can assume he participated in the Fort Pulaski bombardment in April ’62. Orrin made corporal, according to his soldier’s file.

His monumental inscription indicates that Orrin, now age 21, “died at Beaufort, S.C.” on October 28, 1862. The promotion and death date are confirmed by the 1862 Maine Adjutant General’s Report. His soldier’s file reveals that Orrin died in the “U.S. Genl [General] Hosp.[ital]” (likely from disease) at Beaufort. Someone, possibly his comrades or the Springers, apparently paid to have him embalmed and shipped home for burial in Eastbrook Center Cemetery.

Twenty-four when he enlisted in Co. D, 11th Maine Infantry Regiment on July 23, 1862, farmer George L. Butler mustered for three years on August 9. Unmarried, he stood 5-9 and had blue eyes, light hair, and a light complexion. Though an Eastbrook native, he lived in Surry (two towns to the southwest of Eastbrook) when he enlisted.

His soldier’s file available at the Maine State Archives indicates that George “left service” on “May 20, 1864,” the day he “died of wounds.” Someone apparently paid to have him embalmed and sent home for burial in Eastbrook Center Cemetery. As with Orrin, state records indicate that George is buried here in this quiet resting place bordered on three sides by trees.

There’s more to his story, however. His monumental inscription indicates George “died at Fortress Monroe, Va.” Built in the early 1830s as part of the Third System of coastal forts designed to prevent enemy (i.e., “British”) warships from raiding East Coast/Gulf Coast seaports, Fort Monroe remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.

George served with the 11th Maine at Morris Island (near Charleston, South Carolina) in 1863 and shipped with the regiment to Gloucester Point (near Yorktown, Virginia) in April 1864. Assigned to the Army of the James commanded by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, the 11th Maine and George Butler participated in what history calls the Bermuda Hundred Campaign.

In conjunction with the Overland Campaign launched by Maj. Gen. George Meade and his Army of the Potomac, Butler landed his troops at Bermuda Hundred on the right bank of James River on May 5, 1864. As ordered, Butler pushed west and captured the railroad linking Richmond with Petersburg.

Expected to swing south and attack Petersburg, Butler vacillated, then headed north for Richmond on May 12. “Behaving nobly,” the 11th Maine boys fought in various battles before Butler withdrew his army to “their entrenched lines at Bermuda Hundred” on May 16. The 11th Maine suffered 24 casualties in all that fighting.

On May 17, “the regiment attacked [P. G. T.] Beauregard’s train moving past Bermuda Hundred, had a fierce fight,” and lost two men killed and 24 wounded.” Listed among the 11th Maine’s “List of Casualties, May 17th” is the wounded Pvt. George L, Butler.

Along with other wounded Yankees, he shipped down the James to a Fort Monroe army hospital, there to die three days later. Someone apparently paid to have him embalmed and shipped home for burial in Eastbrook Center Cemetery.

With his signature, 26-year-old farmer Charles H. Springer confirmed he “volunteered” on March 9, 1865 “to serve as a Soldier [in the original text]” in the U.S. Army. He had traveled to Augusta (likely by train from Bangor) to enlist. Someone scratched a line through the standard “THREE YEARS” and wrote “one year” in its place. Captain C. Carmichael, 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment, acknowledged the enlistment on March 11. Doctor John Hawes certified “that I have carefully examined” Springer “and that he is free from all bodily defects and mental infirmity.”

Springer stood 5-9 with hazel eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion. Sent to Savannah to join Co. G, 14th Maine Infantry Regiment (then occupation duty), he “died of disease” at the “post hospital” in Savannah on May 7. He was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery North in Savannah.

Despite the distance between them, the three Eastbrook heroes are remembered as “brothers” to this day.

Sources: Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine, 1862, Stevens & Sayward, Augusta, ME, 1863, p. 214; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine, 1864-1865, Stevens & Sayward, Augusta, ME, 1866, pp. 255-256; Brady, Robert Jr. and Maxfield, Albert, The Story of One Regiment: The Eleventh Maine Infantry Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, J.J. Little & Co., New York, NY, 1896, pp. 189-190; Orrin A. Butler, George L. Butler, and Charles H. Springer soldiers’ files, Maine State Archives; 1860 U.S. Census for Eastbrook, Maine; George L. Butler and George H. Springer enlistment papers, MSA; Orrin A. Butler and George L. Butler, Veterans’ Cemetery Records, MSA; Charles H. Springer Find A Grave

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