SeacoastNH Home

FRESH STUFF DAILY
Seacoast New Hampshire
& South Coast Maine

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

How many eyes has a typical person? (ex: 1)
Name:
Email:

Discover more than 1,000 places to go
 
Touring | Free Newsletter | Feedback | Buy the Book | The Blog
Home Seacoast History History Matters Maine Yankee Escapes Confederate South
1052 canada cheapest med cialis 5 mg cialis canada viagra in canada canadianpharmacy viagra for sale where to buy fenfluramine buy viagra online pharmacy to buy phentermine generic viagra canada online prescritions pharmacy viagra online viagra without prescription buy daily cialis are generic pills safe viagra from canada pharmacy canada cialis mg viagra onlinge cheap prescription free viagra cialis 5 mg viagra for sale online get viagra online viagra viagracanadianpharmacy pharmacy viagra cialis viagra detox from vicodin generic propecia online viagra without prescription sialis viagra Levitra 10 mg buy propecia 0
Maine Yankee Escapes Confederate South Print E-mail
Written by J. Dennis Robinson   

frosst00.jpg

HISTORY MATTERS

As the Civil War loomed, a Maine machinist found himself trapped in Richmond, VA, unable to get his family across the battle lines. A "red hot Unionist", George Washington Frosst and his friend John Hancock were imprisoned in a POW camp, then Frosst struck out for the North. 

 

 

George Washington Frosst in Salisbury PrisonD

George Washington Frosst (1827-1904) was a Yankee patriot to the core. His grandfather fought alongside his namesake, Gen. George Washington, in the Revolution. His father was a Maine textile mechanic at the Portsmouth Manufacturing Company on the Quamphegan Falls in South Berwick. Although sickly as a boy, George survived the tuberculosis and smallpox epidemics that swept through the mills, wiping out most of the men in his family.

Despite the tragedy, George too became a machinist. After accidentally losing an eye in a nearby Rollinsford factory, he moved on to the massive mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. There George Washington Frosst befriended John Hancock, another mill worker. Seeking opportunity and a healthier climate, the two men moved to Virginia with Hancock’s brother Thomas, to found their own machine shop. Getting back home to Maine became the adventure of a lifetime.

Trapped in the South

In 1857 George Frosst married a southerner, Emma Elizabeth Sumpter of Richmomd, Virginia. Three years later, history swallowed them up. Abraham Lincoln was elected president and, upon his inauguration, Southern states began to secede from the Union, sparking the Civil War. In February 1862, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated at Richmond for a six year term as president of the Confederate States of America.

Within a month George Frosst was named as a potential Yankee spy and hauled before Richmond’s provost marshal. George would pledge his loyalty to the Confederacy, the marshal said, or "he would put me where the dogs would never think of looking for me." According to his own account, written decades later, George refused to take the oath. The marshal ("the old red-headed skunk") told George he "deserved to be shot" and threw him into prison with his partners John and Thomas Hancock and other "red hot Union men".

CONTINUE FROSST EXCAPE


 

Please visit these SeacoastNH.com ad partners.

Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner

Portsmouth Herald

Portsmouth Herald Latest Headlines
Portsmouth Herald News from SeacoastOnline.com

Banner
Saturday, November 21, 2009 
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner
Banner

Copyright 1996-2009 SeacoastNH.com. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement
PO Box 7158, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03802 | 603-427-2020

Site by enorm.new.