Invitation for Gen. Shepley to visit Bangor, 1863
Samuel H. Dale, mayor of Bangor, and 38 "influential" citizens wrote to Brig. Gen. George F. Shepley, military governor of Louisiana, to invite him to visit Bangor while he was in Maine in August 1863. Dale wrote that they wanted to welcome Shepley home and learn from him "such lessons of Patriotism and Duty as the day and the hour imperatively demand." Shepley had been a lawyer and district attorney in Portland before the war and went to Louisiana as commander of the 12th Maine Regiment.