Company D

A Civil War veteran who claimed he could photograph the dead. Bainbridge P. Brown, a former Company D soldier, rose to fame as a spirit photographer, using his "charmed" camera to convince grieving families that their lost loved ones had returned from beyond the grave. But two photography experts exposed his deception and destroyed his reputation. Episode 19, “The Ghost Photographer,” follows Brow...

Bainbridge P. Brown deserted from Company D of the Third Maine, yet somehow secured a medical discharge. He may have been gay in an era when such relationships were kept secret. He built a successful career as a studio photographer in Bath and Boston before turning to spirit photography, claiming his charmed camera could capture images of the dead. Then his world caved in. The full episode, "The G...

Did former corporal Albert S. Merry kill his wife? In our second Company D Noir episode, we investigate a bitter marriage. While Albert spent most of his time living at the Old Soldiers' Home in Togus, Maine, his wife, Nancy, lived nearby in poverty. They fought over his military pension. They accused each other of physical and mental abuse. And then, on the coldest night of 1907, Nancy was found...

A dead wife. A bitter marriage. A husband with motive and opportunity. In 1907, former Company D corporal Albert S. Merry found his estranged wife, Nancy, frozen to death in her woodshed. Authorities ruled her death as a heart attack. But Nancy had accused Albert of violence, threats, and infidelity, and her daughter believed her mother was the victim of foul play. Did Albert kill his wife? Episod...

Three brothers went to war, but not on the same side. James and Charles Couillard fought for the Union, while their brother John worked on a Louisiana slave plantation and joined the Confederate Army. At Fredericksburg, their divided paths converged on the same battlefield. Episode 17 follows the Couillard brothers from Bath, Maine, through slavery, war, capture, and a family divide that would nev...

Three Maine brothers. Loyalties divided between the Union and the Confederacy. One battlefield. James and Charles Couillard fought for the Third Maine. Their brother John worked on a slave plantation and joined the Sixth Louisiana. At Fredericksburg, they clashed head-to-head, with consequences that would widen their divide forever. Episode 17, Union Brothers, Slaver Brother , arrives September 30...

Born into one of Bath, Maine’s wealthiest families, James H. Tallman enlisted in the Union Army as a private and quickly rose to major. But money and connections couldn’t protect him from his own reckless behavior. Episode 16 traces Tallman’s remarkable rise and fall through two court-martials, scandal, dismissal, and an early death that brought one of Maine’s most prominent families crashing back...

Born into wealth and privilege, James H. Tallman enlisted as a private in Company D of the Third Maine and quickly rose through the ranks to become a major in the Union Army. But Tallman’s confidence became recklessness and led to not one court-martial, but two in less than two years. Episode 16, The Poor Little Rich Boy , arrives September 16.

When James E. Hooper was drafted into the Union Army, he paid George S. Stewart to take his place. Stewart went to war. Hooper stayed home. But neither man escaped what followed. Episode 15 traces the intertwined lives of two strangers whose single transaction ended in disappearance, imprisonment, disease, and death.

George S. Stewart, a poor brickmaker in New Hampshire, became the paid substitute for James Hooper of Paris, Maine. One man took the other's place to fight in the American Civil War. Yet, somehow, the fates of these two strangers became dangerously intertwined. Episode 15, Two Strangers, One Fate , arrives September 2.

One failed promotion cost Captain William H. Watson his military career. Or so he thought. After resigning his commission, he was drafted back into the Union Army and paid a substitute to serve in his place rather than return as an enlisted man. Yet by the end of his life, he had become "Colonel" Watson. Episode 14 explores ambition, memory, and legacy.

Captain William H. Watson gambled his military career on a promotion he believed was certain. Instead, he resigned his commission, watched his ambitions collapse, and was drafted back into the Union Army as an enlisted man. Join us for a story of ambition, reinvention, and the power of memory. Episode 14, Colonel Watson , arrives July 22.

A single bullet at the Battle of Bull Run shattered Moses O. Crafts' knee and changed the course of his life. By the time he returned home to Bath, Maine, he had traded a sergeant's stripes for a private's, a musket for a walking stick, and dreams of military glory for a lifetime of pain. But Moses refused to let his wound define him. Episode 13 follows the remarkable journey of one of Company D's...

A gunshot wound ended Sergeant Moses O. Crafts' Civil War service. It never stopped shaping his life. For decades afterward, he described the same pain: a knee that turned numb, cold, and nearly useless. His remarkable story arrives on July 8 in Episode 13, The Broken Soldier .

Drafted into the Civil War they never wanted to fight, John and Frank Shorey served side by side in the Third Maine Infantry. Same company. Same tent. Same war. They even wrote letters home together. Then two bullets changed everything. Episode 12 traces the remarkable journey of two inseparable brothers from a Maine brickyard to the battlefields of Virginia.

The Shorey brothers never wanted to be soldiers. John and Frank worked at their father's brickyard in Norridgewock, Maine, and hoped to avoid the Civil War altogether. But when the draft caught up with them in 1863, the brothers had no choice but to enlist. They became inseparable: same company, same tent, same war. Then two bullets changed everything. The full episode drops on June 14.

Boy soldier Granville M. Holt enlisted in the U.S. Army at just 15 years old, becoming one of the youngest Civil War soldiers in Maine history. He managed this feat with the blessing of his minister father, who assured recruiters that his son was 18—the legal enlistment age. Granville survived the war, but he could not escape the affliction that had haunted the Holt family for generations.

Granville M. Holt became a U.S. infantryman in the American Civil War in 1863. He was 15 years old, three years under the legal minimum age, but he enlisted with the blessing of his minister father to become one of Maine's youngest Civil War soldiers. Granville survived the war, but he couldn't escape the affliction that haunted the Holt family for generations. The full episode drops June 10.

Season Two of Company D returns June 10 with 10 brand-new episodes exploring the soldiers and families of Company D of the Third Maine Infantry Regiment. This season, you'll meet 15-year-old Granville Holt, one of the youngest soldiers from Maine. You'll discover the York family, who sent more sons to war than any other family in the state. You'll encounter the enigmatic ghost photographer Bainbri...

Before Season Two begins, a quick update on the origins of Company D and what comes next. To help support research, archival work, and production for the new season, we’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign. If you’d like to help bring more of these forgotten Civil War stories to life: 🔗 Support Season Two One Regiment. One Company. Countless Stories.

On the rainy evening of September 27, 1882, an elderly miser named Joseph H. Higgins was ambushed at the doorway to his isolated cabin in Bath, Maine. He was robbed and left for dead, lingering several days before succumbing. His murder remains unsolved. In our final episode of Season One, Company D uses modern technology to try to do the impossible: solve a 143-year-old murder mystery.

A cantankerous old man, rumored to be a wealthy miser, and who has strained relations with his dysfunctional family, is found battered and bloody on the floor of his isolated house in Bath, Maine. The old man’s wallet is missing, his locked valise is opened and empty, and the premises have been cleared of all the cash he allegedly hoarded inside. What happened to Corporal Joseph Emery Purrington’s...

Josiah A. Temple became a substitute for Captain William Watson of Company D after he quit service and was then drafted. Watson paid Temple to take his place. Temple joined the Seventeenth Maine Infantry and set out on a life filled with contradictions. He was a lawyer who defrauded his clients. He was a politician who lied. He was a moral reformer accused of abusing women. Temple was a troubled p...

Josiah Temple became the paid substitute for former Company D Captain William Watson. Taking money to fight for another man became symbolic of the life Temple would lead. He became a lawyer, politician, and temperance advocate, but beneath the surface, he was a con man and a crook. He was forced to move repeatedly as his legal and ethical lapses hounded him, until he ended up in Minnesota as a can...

More than 700,000 soldiers died in the American Civil War. This episode follows how the death of a single soldier, Private Gustavus Pratt, altered the course of one family: the Pratts of Richmond, Maine. It is the story of a grief-stricken father marching straight into disaster, a widow who slips into a life of lies and betrayal, and a younger brother’s brutal path toward redemption.