I Remember a Rebel Mob in Freedom
My
mother, who as a young girl lived with relatives and attended the academy in
Freedom, Maine, first told me the story of the night during the Civil War when a
rebel mob threatened the home of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Williams. Mr. Williams
himself related the incident to me in more detail.
Feelings were running
high in the village during the war years. Although many of the young men had
gone off to fight for the Union, a group of townspeople sympathetic to the
southern cause had organized a military company and were holding drills. Mr.
Williams and Dr. A. J. Billings, two of the town's leading citizens, decided
that something should be done to put a stop to such treason. When Dr. Billings
went to Augusta to enlist as a Surgeon in the army, he reported the matter to
authorities, and marshals came to Freedom, arrested the leader of the rebel
company and took him away.
Resentful, his followers gathered one dark
night outside the Williams home and demanded that Mr. Williams come out. Mrs.
Williams, an invalid, fearing that her husband might be killed, tried to
dissuade him from leaving the house, but Mr. Williams was determined to find out
who were the men in the crowd threatening him. He removed his glasses, pulled an
old slouch hat well down over his forehead, donned a dark coat and slipped out
the back door into the orchard. Circling the buildings, he came upon the mob
from the rear and mingled with the men without being recognized.
The mob
milled around a while, but, lacking leadership and courage, finally dispersed
and went home. The rebel leader was imprisoned in Fort Halifax at Winslow until
the end of the war, when he was released and allowed to return to
Freedom.
Josephine M. York, Portland, Maine
from Historical
Scrapbook Freedom Maine 1794-1976