Guide to the Elisha Coan Collection, 1831-1955, undated
Elisha Coan Collection, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library.
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Elisha Coan (1843-1896), a native of Exeter, Maine, served in the Civil War in the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment (1862) and with the U.S. Army Signal Corps (1863-1865). After the war he returned to Maine and received his M.D. from the Medical School of Maine in 1870. He practiced medicine in Bradford (1870-1875), Garland (1875-1887), and Auburn, Maine (1887-1896), and served a year in the Maine Legislature (1885-1886). Coan married Mary Abbie Swett in 1871; they had two sons and two daughters. He died in Auburn in 1896.
Letters, documents, articles, clippings, photographs and other material (1831-1955, n.d.) relating to Coan and his career. Most of the collection relates to the Civil War, including a few Civil War era letters from Coan to his family, articles and reminiscences of the war years, and separate accounts of the action at Gettysburg written by Elisha Coan and Col. William C. Oates of the 15th Alabama. The collection also includes three letters and an article by Marion Coan, Elisha's daughter.
This series contains legal documents, primarily land deeds, and correspondence. Correspondence includes eight dated letters written by Elisha Coan during the Civil War. Other correspondence concerns family matters before and after the Civil War. Several letters written during the 1950s by Marion Coan, daughter of Elisha, are included.
Arranged chronogically within category.
Documents, 1831-1864
Letters, 1857-1955
Letters, n.d.
This series contains articles and addresses; most relate to the Civil War. The notable exception is a printed copy of "A Revolutionary Prison Diary," written by Marion S. Coan, daughter of Elisha Coan. Elisha Coan's 24-page manuscript detailing the 20th Maine's engagement at Gettysburg is also included.
Arranged alphabetically.
"Account of the part played by the 20th Maine in the Battle of Gettysburg" [with typescript copy]
"Garland in the Civil War"
["Gettysburg"], by William C. Oates [missing page 1]
"The Grand Army of the Republic: Past, Present and Future"
"The Grand Review"
"In Memoriam" [missing page 14]
"The Leaf" and "Forests and Shadetrees"
"The Military and the Naval Situation..." by William Swinton [printed]
"The Next Picture..."
"A Night's March"
"Pen Picture of the Army in Spring of '62"
"A Quarter of a Century Ago..."
"A Revolutionary Prison Diary..." by Marion S. Coan [printed]
"Tom Wright: A Tale of the Late War"
Miscellaneous fragments
This series contains biographical materials, clippings, a braided military hat band and three portraits: a tintype of Elisha Coan in uniform; a tintype of an unidentified youth; and a daguerreotype of "Capt. Swett, Hampden, Me."
Arranged alphabetically.
Autobiographical sketch
Biographical sketches
"Elisha S. Coan" (biography)
From Medical School scrapbook
Clippings: From Medical School scrapbook
Clippings: General
Braided military hat cord
Tintypes and daguerreotypes