PORTLAND, Maine — Researcher and author Larry Glatz is really into Maine history, especially the state’s role during the War of 1812. Glatz even bought a microfilm reader so he could browse historic documents in the comfort of his own Scarborough home.
“Searching online is handy, but it’s not entirely reliable without guessing the right spellings and keywords,” Glatz said. “The most reliable record is to get out the old microfilm and just go look.”
Now, thanks to Glatz’s years of self-directed research, and his habit of reading every historical document in full, five unknown soldiers buried on Portland’s Eastern Prom since the War of 1812 will finally have names. On Oct. 13, the men who made the ultimate sacrifice for their then-infant country will get new headstones from the Department of Veterans Affairs, while a bugler plays taps during a solemn rededication ceremony.
“The War of 1812 is a little corner of history that is very poorly documented or understood, but it was important here in Portland — and in Maine too,” Glatz said on Monday, looking down at the graves. “The War of 1812 was the trigger that fired the gun that separated Maine from Massachusetts. So it’s a big deal.”
Part of the challenge for Glatz was the fact that regular U.S. Army volunteers were recruited locally by captains all over the Northeast. Those local captains kept records of their soldiers but the National Archives holds precious few of their books. Many were lost. Some are in private collections while others are in local and state archives.
To understand why soldiers are buried on the Eastern Prom in the first place, you have to go back to just before Christmas, 1812. That’s when the British warship HMS Regulus dropped anchor in Portland Harbor under a flag of truce.
What we now call the War of 1812 had been declared six months earlier. The Regulus was traveling from Quebec to Boston on a prisoner of war exchange mission. It was full of American soldiers captured at the disastrous battle at Queenston Heights in Canada on Oct. 13 of that year.
The prisoners were sick with malnutrition, fever and dysentery. A score had already died and were buried at sea. Of those still living, the British sent 26 of the sickest to Portland’s military hospital, then located on the eastern end of Munjoy Hill.
There, most of the soldiers died early in 1813. At least 21 were buried together, in a mass grave, on what’s now the Eastern Prom. A monument marking the spot was dedicated in 1987. Flanking the marker on either side, 21 individual headstones commemorate each soldier. Of them, 13 have names — but eight are marked “unknown.”
“And we’re going to change five of them,” Glatz said.
The soldiers getting stones in October are: Anthony Comer, Joseph Lord, J. Merrick, Daniel G. Snow and Ira Witt. However, beyond their names, Glatz has not been able to discover much else about the ill-fated men.
Glatz discovered Comer, Lord and Witt’s names while reading back issues of the Argus, one of Portland’s two leading newspapers in 1813. An article dated Feb. 18 stated all three men had died in the hospital. But to be sure, Glatz then cross referenced their names with a microfilm copy of the National Archives’ “U.S. Army Enlistments 1798-1815” he had at home.
It wasn’t easy.
Comer’s name was misspelled in the newspaper, and the National Archive listing — which includes thousands of names — is alphabetized using a confusing antique method.
Glatz was able to learn Comer was a private in the 13th Infantry, probably from around New York City. Both Lord and Witt were privates in the 23rd Infantry, likely from New York’s Finger Lakes region.
Glatz found the remaining two men’s names in an obscure, self-published book written by Jack Bilow of Plattsburg, New York called “A War of 1812 Death Register” which listed the names of all soldiers wounded, killed or missing in action from battles fought along the Canadian border.
“When I was reading Bilow’s book, I wasn’t reading for these people at all,” Glatz said. “I was just going through and finding any references to anybody from Maine.”
But when he saw Merrick and Snow’s death dates and Portland location, Glatz knew they had to be two more of the former POWs who died at the hospital. He then went back to the microfilm reader in his house and found their names, to be sure.
Merrick was in the 6th Infantry, probably came from New York or Pennsylvania, and died Jan. 10. Like Comer, Snow was in the 13th Infantry and likely hailed from New York City.
Portland historian and teacher Herb Adams helped do the initial research for the 1987 memorial dedication. Adams frequently collaborates with Glatz on research projects and said he’s delighted Glatz has been able to find more information about the graves.
“Those that made a nation deserve to be remembered,” Adams said. “How many thousands of families never knew what happened to their loved ones?”
Glatz and Adams have two more War of 1812 commemorations in the works. On Sept. 14, they’ll help dedicate a cenotaph memorial in the Eastern Cemetery to Portlander Capt. Lemuel Bradford, who was killed in action at Fort Erie in Canada on Sept. 17, 1814. Bradford’s remains were never recovered from the battlefield. Sometime next year, they’ll also dedicate a monument to another War of 1812 soldier in South Portland.
Glatz, now 78, said he’ll keep on digging for new information as long as he’s able.
“When I run into things marked ‘unknown,’ I don’t want to stop there,” he said. “I think, ‘how unknown? Why unknown?’”
