Explanation: For non-Americans, Maine is a Northern US state which, during the US Civil War, sided with the Union against the secessionist Confederacy of the South, which seceded for the sole purpose of preserving slavery. During the US Civil War, a Maine regiment gained everlasting renown by repelling a secessionist attack during one of the pivotal battles of the war, at Gettysburg. Out of ammunition, rather than retreat or surrender, they fixed bayonets and charged the Confederates, driving them back and preserving a key location on the battlefield for the Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Round_Top
Little Round Top was successfully defended by a brigade under Colonel Strong Vincent, who was mortally wounded during the fighting and died five days later. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, fought its most famous engagement there, culminating in a dramatic downhill bayonet charge. The battle at Little Round Top subsequently became one of the most well-known actions at Gettysburg, and of the entire war.
Bonus: an 1861 letter from a good Maine enlisted boy that I think many of us here will find resonates with our values.
What a splendid cause is this on which we are engaged. I think it is the grandest that ever enlisted the sympathies of man. Nobler even than the Revolution for they fought for their freedom while we fight for that of another race. I firmly believe that the doom of slavery is fixed and if it is not wholly rooted out by the present war, measures will be taken to wipe it out forever. If such an event can be consummated by any sacrifice of mine, it shall be cheerfully made. I could die for this as readily as I could lie down to rest at the close of a day of wearisome toil. Men have called this age dull. They can do so no more ... War is bad, heaven knows, but slavery is far worse. If the doom of slavery is not sealed by the war, I shall curse the day I entered the Army, or lifted a finger in the preservation of the Union. Of the old Union we have had enough and more than enough.
— Walter Stone Poor
