Bowdoin College has caused many to say that this is where the Civil War “began and ended”. It was in Appleton Hall, while her husband was teaching at Bowdoin, that Harriet Beecher Stowe began writing her novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Than Joshua Chamberlain, who was an alumnus and professor of Bowdoin accepted the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.
Other Civil War connections to Bowdoin College include, General Oliver Otis Howard [the class of 1850], who was the leader of the Freedmen’s Bureau after the war. Governor John A Andrew [class of 1837] who was responsible for the formation of the 54th Massachusetts. William P Fessenden [class of 1823] and Hugh McCulloch [class 1827] both of whom served as Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury. Brevet Brigadier General Ellis Spear [class of 1858] who was Chamberlain’s second in command at Gettysburg. John Brown Russwurm [class of 1826] who was the third black man to graduate from an American college and the co-founder of “Freedom’s Journal” the country’s first black newspaper.
