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Publication Date

7-1-2019

Document Type

Article

First Page

41

Last Page

70

Abstract

Sergeant Andrew Jackson Tozier’s seizing of an abandoned rifle to defend the 20th Maine’s national flag at his lone, advanced position would earn him a Medal of Honor. As Tozier left no personal diary, or personal letters written during the war, scholars must instead turn to archival military records, published regimental histories, contemporary newspaper accounts, and the diaries and letters of Tozier’s regimental comrades. Using these sources, the article herein sketches a portrait of the man General Joshua Chamberlain lauded as “an example of all that was excellent as a soldier.” More broadly, perhaps, it depicts the experiences of a subset of young Maine men—Tozier’s contemporaries—who volunteered to go to war in the early 1860s. James Christian holds degrees from Harvard College and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He resides in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he works as an occupational medicine physician, certifying the fitness and managing the injuries of public safety employees, among other duties. His frequent work with veterans has given him an appreciation for the special problems of those who have seen combat and, like Tozier, are left to struggle with war-related disabilities long after the guns have silenced. Christian credits these veterans, as well as the Civil War scholarship of historian Thomas Desjardin, for providing the inspiration for this article.1

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