Jared Peatman traces his fascination with the Civil War to an April vacation trip during the sixth grade to the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where the bloodiest battle of the war proved pivotal for the Union on its path to victory.

Soon after, the Canaan native read a history of the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment, a volunteer group of soldiers from around the state known best for its bayonet charge during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, and its professor-turned-military leader Joshua Chamberlain.

“Part of the resonance of the story is this idea of common people — these aren’t career military folks, any of them — stepping up in the moment,” Peatman said in a recent interview, “and the story of a leader, who maybe we can all hope that we can be in that moment.”

Peatman researched the unit during his time at Skowhegan Area Middle School and Skowhegan Area High School, eventually compiling a 150-page document of various accounts. He set that aside through his undergraduate and graduate studies to focus more on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the subject of his first history book published in 2013.

Peatman has recently published his second book, “A Hell of a Regiment: To Gettysburg and Beyond with the Twentieth Maine,” which provides a fresh perspective on the lives of the men who made up the 20th Maine. 

Peatman, 46, of Vienna, Virginia, plans to return to Maine in the coming weeks to share some of those stories. 

He has three book talks planned: 5:30 p.m. July 10 at the Pejepscot History Center in Brunswick (159 Park Row); 5 p.m. July 12 at the Canaan Farmers Hall in Canaan (296 Main St.); and 1 p.m. July 19 during East Madison Days at the East Madison Historical Association in Madison (1108 East Madison Road).

Peatman, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Gettysburg College, a master’s degree from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, is senior fellow at the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership and the director of curriculum for the Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg.

He said he plans to focus his Maine talks on local ties communities have to the 20th Maine.

The more than 500 men from the unit at Gettysburg came from all 16 counties, with 51 from Somerset and 30 from Kennebec. 

Those included eight from Athens, two from Bingham, two from Canaan, 10 from Cornville, one from Hartland, one from Skowhegan, eight from Solon, six from St. Albans, six from Clinton and nine from Waterville, according to Peatman.

Among those with compelling stories, Peatman said, is Henry Moore from Canaan, a mutineer from another regiment later assigned to the 20th Maine. After being wounded many times, he struggled upon returning home from the war.

“Through stories like Henry Moore, we can see what the post-war lives for these folks were like and the range of experiences that they had,” Peatman said.

He noted that post-war adjustments for veterans weren’t studied until the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The geographical diversity of where the 20th Maine’s members came from is part of what makes the group unique, with no common hometown or local politician or newspaper to sing their praises.

“They become very conscious of the fact that they don’t have much of a reputation back in Maine, but they have a great reputation in the Army,” Peatman said. “It, in part, is what inspires them, I think, to perform so well at Gettysburg. They’re just desperate for a chance to sort of build a reputation and gain some fame.”

It also made for a unique historical source: accounts from 20th Maine members were published post-war in the Lincoln County News. Peatman said the men turned there to swap stories because they had nowhere local to gather.

“We now can eavesdrop on those conversations 160 years later,” he said.

Peatman will have copies of “A Hell of a Regiment” available to purchase at his talks. The book, published by Stackpole Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster, is also available to purchase from major retailers and local bookstores.