The state of Maine organized seven companies of militia infantry for coast guard duties in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
They primarily served to garrison coastal fortifications in Maine, with two companies sent to the Defenses of Washington, DC.
A New York Times article in 1864 stated that Vice President Hannibal Hamlin served at Fort McClary as a private in the Maine State Guard; some subsequent citations erroneously confuse this with the Maine Coast Guard.
[1][2] Company A mustered in at Belfast, Maine, March 18, 1864.
Company B mustered in at Augusta, Maine, April 27, 1864.
Stationed at Fort Sullivan, Eastport, Maine.