“I am all right yet”: Letters from the Civil War: Sgt. James C. Beitel, 153rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1862-1863. Edited by Judith Armstrong. Illustration, 58 pp., 2009, lulu.com, www.lulu.com, $10.50, softcover.
There seems to be no end to the publication of letters written during the Civil War. These two works present the writings of soldiers who served in the Eastern Theater for the entire period they were in the war. Twenty-year-old James C. Beitel’s 153rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment was organized for a term of nine months (October 1862-July 1863). Beitel, who joined as a private and won promotion to sergeant, served as a member of the regimental band. Unfortunately, he wrote little about his duties as a musician. Most of his 30 letters are short and reveal little about soldier life that we do not already know. Arguably the most interesting feature of the letters concerns the fact that Beitel, a watchmaker by trade, established and operated what amounted to a watchmaking and repair business for his comrades. His great-granddaughter, Judith Beitel Armstrong, has transcribed the letters without any editorial additions. This book is not recommended except for those with an interest in the regiment. Joseph Hoyle’s letters present a much fuller account of soldier life and service. They cover the time from his May 1862 enlistment until he was mortally wounded near Globe Tavern, Virginia, in August 1864. Hoyle’s religious convictions stand out in the letters he wrote to his wife Sarah. In fact, he hoped to become a minister, and he even started studying Greek while he was in the army, perhaps to prepare himself for theological studies. He also wrote letters to a local newspaper, and these are included in this collection. Editor Jeffrey Girvan has identified many of the people to whom Hoyle referred, some of them in far too much detail. He has also included extended essays on the common soldier and the experience in combat — both interesting topics, to be sure, but of questionable relevance here. Most of Hoyle’s letters are, in and of themselves, of limited value, being statements of how much he misses his wife. For a while, however, he adopted the practice of writing letters that were, in effect, diary entries, and these will be of considerable use to students of the unit and the campaigns in which it took part. Good editing would have shortened many of the notes and made the book much more reader-friendly. Reiewer: Richard M. McMurry Richard M. McMurry is working on a study of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s role in the war.
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“Deliver Us from This Cruel War”: The Civil War Letters of Lieutenant Joseph J. Hoyle, 55th North Carolina Infantry. Edited by Jeffrey M. Girvan. Maps, notes, bibliography, index, 243 pp.,2010,McFarland, www.mcfarlandpub.com, $45, softcover.