1st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment

1st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Flag of the United States, 1861–1863
Active	3 May 1861 to 5 August 1861 26 May to 5 October 1898
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Infantry
Engagements	None
Commanders
Colonel	Nathaniel J. Jackson

The 1st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was later re-activated in 1898 for the Spanish–American War, but did not serve overseas.

Abraham Lincoln's first call for volunteers in April, 1861 required Maine to raise one regiment of infantry for three months of Federal service. This was done by reorganizing ten existing companies of the state militia, completed at Portland, Maine on 28 April 1861 and mustered into service on 3 May 1861, a total of 779 soldiers. The regimental commander was Colonel Nathaniel Jackson.

The First Maine was transferred to Washington, D.C. on 1 June 1861, where it remained until 1 August 1861, encamped on Meridian Hill. It spent its entire service in the Washington defenses and saw no combat. They were mustered out on 5 August 1861.

Although the regiment's required Federal service was only three months, all of the soldiers had enlisted for two or three years. Many soldiers in the regiment who were required to remain in service joined the 10th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which retained eight of the 1st Maine's ten companies.

The regimental history was published as History of the 1st-10th-29th Maine Regiment written by Major John Mead Gould.

The regiment was mustered into the service of the United States at Augusta, Maine on 26 May 1898, with 46 officers and 979 enlisted men. The regiment moved to Chickamauga, Georgia, then a mobilization center. On 31 May it was assigned to Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Army Corps. The regiment did not deploy further and returned to Augusta, Maine 23–27 August after three months' service. On 21 September the regiment was furloughed for 30 days, and on 25 October the regiment's components began to muster out after five months' service. This was completed on 13 December with 46 officers and 1,211 enlisted men mustered out. A memorial plaque for Company K of the 1st Maine in the Spanish–American War is in a park near Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.