Charles Davis Jameson

Charles Davis Jameson (February 24, 1827 – November 6, 1862) was an American Civil War general and Democratic Party candidate for Governor of Maine. He contracted "camp fever" (typhoid) at the Battle of Fair Oaks, returned to his native state of Maine, dying in transit or soon after.

Charles Davis Jameson
Brig. Gen. Charles Davis Jameson, ca. 1862
Born(1827-02-24)February 24, 1827
Gorham, Maine
DiedNovember 6, 1862(1862-11-06) (aged 35)
Old Town, Maine
Place of burial
Riverside Cemetery, Stillwater, Maine
AllegianceUnited States of America
Union
Service/branchUnited States Army
Union Army
Years of service1861–1862
Rank Brigadier General
Commands held2nd Maine Infantry
Battles/wars

Jameson was born in Gorham, Maine, but his family moved to the lumbering and sawmilling center of Old Town, Maine when he was still a child. Jameson became a successful lumberman, and in 1860 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Maine. With the outbreak of war in 1861 he was elected Colonel commanding the 2nd Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first Maine unit to leave the state for the front. He led his regiment into the First Battle of Bull Run and was soon made Brigadier General of Volunteers.

In the months after Bull Run the Democratic Party of Maine split into anti-war and pro-war factions, and Jameson became the gubernatorial candidate of the "War Democrats". He lost the election to Republican Israel Washburn, Jr. from the neighboring town of Orono, but narrowly beat the anti-war Democrat, John W. Dana. In 1862, however, with the war going badly, Jameson was largely abandoned by Democratic voters when he ran again, though the anti-war Democratic candidate was narrowly defeated by Republican Abner Coburn.[1]

Later that year at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Jameson was wounded and subsequently disabled by "camp fever" (likely typhoid fever) and allowed to return to Maine. He died in Old Town on November 6, 1862 and is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Stillwater, Maine.[2] Some sources report that Jameson actually died on the steamship carrying him home between Boston and Bangor.[3]

Notes
  1. \Lewiston Evening Journal, Oct. 18, 1879, p. 4
  2. History of Penobscot County, Maine, (Cleveland, 1882), pp. 99-100; Appleton's Cyclopedia, "Charles Davis Jameson"
  3. John H. Eicher and John Y. Simon, Civil War High Commands (Stanford U. Press, 2001), p. 317


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