From the April 5th Chicago Tribune "Civil War's start? Try looking in Maine?" by Ross Werland.
With all of the hoopla over the Sesquicentennial of the firing on Fort Sumter this month, was that actually where and when the Civil War started? Some say it started in Pensacola, Florida, or earlier in Charleston Harbor when Citadel students fired on the Star of the West.
The Tribune offers Brunswick, Maine as a possibility.
It could be argued there because that is the town where Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" after being inspired by a sermon she heard at a church that still stands at the corner of Maine Street and Bath Road, the First Parish Church.
The book helped jolt abolitionist opinion which mounted their attacks on the South.
It is said that Abraham Lincoln, when meeting her at the White House, said, "So this is the little lady who started this great war."
From Wikipedia: The Harriet beecher Stowe home is in town at 63 Federal Street. She lived here in this rented house while her husband taught at Bowdoin College. She wrote the book between 1850 and 1852. It is now owned by the college but not open to the public.
In addition, across from the church is the home of Bowdoin College professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain who made quite a name for himself at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Did It Start Here? --Old B-Runner
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