Ellis Spear

author

Ellis Spear

1834–1917

Best known as a Union officer in the 20th Maine, he later turned his wartime experience into writing that helps readers see the Civil War from the inside. His career also reached beyond the battlefield, stretching into law, public service, and patent work.

2 Audiobooks

The hoe cake of Appomattox

The hoe cake of Appomattox

by Ellis Spear

The Story of the Raising and Organization of a Regiment of Volunteers in 1862 Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandery of the District of Columbia, War Papers 46

The Story of the Raising and Organization of a Regiment of Volunteers in 1862 Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Commandery of the District of Columbia, War Papers 46

by Ellis Spear

About the author

Born in Warren, Maine, in 1834, Ellis Spear graduated from Bowdoin College and was teaching and studying law when the Civil War began. He helped recruit Company G of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry and served as one of the regiment’s key officers, rising through the ranks during some of the war’s hardest fighting.

After the war, he built a second career in public service and law, including work with the U.S. Patent Office before entering private practice as a patent attorney. Alongside that work, he wrote about the war from the perspective of someone who had lived it, preserving details of military organization and camp life that might otherwise have been lost.

Spear died in 1917. Readers interested in memoir, military history, and firsthand Civil War recollection may find his work especially rewarding, since it combines the eye of a participant with the discipline of a careful observer.