Company D

Did former corporal Albert S. Merry kill his wife? In our second Company D Noir episode, we investigate a bitter marriage. While Albert spent most of his time living at the Old Soldiers' Home in Togus, Maine, his wife, Nancy, lived nearby in poverty. They fought over his military pension. They accused each other of physical and mental abuse. And then, on the coldest night of 1907, Nancy was found dead in her woodshed.

A dead wife. A bitter marriage. A husband with motive and opportunity. In 1907, former Company D corporal Albert S. Merry found his estranged wife, Nancy, frozen to death in her woodshed. Authorities ruled her death as a heart attack. But Nancy had accused Albert of violence, threats, and infidelity, and her daughter believed her mother was the victim of foul play. Did Albert kill his wife? Episode 18, The Merry Affair, arrives October 14.

Three brothers went to war, but not on the same side. James and Charles Couillard fought for the Union, while their brother John worked on a Louisiana slave plantation and joined the Confederate Army. At Fredericksburg, their divided paths converged on the same battlefield. Episode 17 follows the Couillard brothers from Bath, Maine, through slavery, war, capture, and a family divide that would never fully heal.

Three Maine brothers. Loyalties divided between the Union and the Confederacy. One battlefield. James and Charles Couillard fought for the Third Maine. Their brother John worked on a slave plantation and joined the Sixth Louisiana. At Fredericksburg, they clashed head-to-head, with consequences that would widen their divide forever. Episode 17, Union Brothers, Slaver Brother, arrives September 30.

Born into one of Bath, Maine’s wealthiest families, James H. Tallman enlisted in the Union Army as a private and quickly rose to major. But money and connections couldn’t protect him from his own reckless behavior. Episode 16 traces Tallman’s remarkable rise and fall through two court-martials, scandal, dismissal, and an early death that brought one of Maine’s most prominent families crashing back to earth.

Born into wealth and privilege, James H. Tallman enlisted as a private in Company D of the Third Maine and quickly rose through the ranks to become a major in the Union Army. But Tallman’s confidence became recklessness and led to not one court-martial, but two in less than two years. Episode 16, The Poor Little Rich Boy, arrives September 16.

When James E. Hooper was drafted into the Union Army, he paid George S. Stewart to take his place. Stewart went to war. Hooper stayed home. But neither man escaped what followed. Episode 15 traces the intertwined lives of two strangers whose single transaction ended in disappearance, imprisonment, disease, and death.

George S. Stewart, a poor brickmaker in New Hampshire, became the paid substitute for James Hooper of Paris, Maine. One man took the other's place to fight in the American Civil War. Yet, somehow, the fates of these two strangers became dangerously intertwined. Episode 15, Two Strangers, One Fate, arrives September 2.

One failed promotion cost Captain William H. Watson his military career. Or so he thought. After resigning his commission, he was drafted back into the Union Army and paid a substitute to serve in his place rather than return as an enlisted man. Yet by the end of his life, he had become "Colonel" Watson. Episode 14 explores ambition, memory, and legacy.

Captain William H. Watson gambled his military career on a promotion he believed was certain. Instead, he resigned his commission, watched his ambitions collapse, and was drafted back into the Union Army as an enlisted man. Join us for a story of ambition, reinvention, and the power of memory. Episode 14, Colonel Watson, arrives July 22.