Keep Up Good Courage: A Yankee Family and the Civil War

By Alan Fraser Houston
Illustrated, maps, endnotes, bibliography, index, 306 pp., 2006. Peter E. Randall Publisher LLC, P.O. Box 4726, Portsmouth NH 03802, $24.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Kenneth D. Williams
Kenneth D. Williams is writing a book on the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers and is doing doctoral level work in American history. He has worked as a park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site.

Review:
The summer of 1862 brought a series of military reverses to the Union which forced the Northern government to search for new sources of recruits. The July call by President Lincoln for 300,000 new three-year volunteers was met with qualified success throughout the North and especially in New England.

In one small corner of New Hampshire, the village of Sandwich would send 85 of her sons off to war in Company K of the 14th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. Among those sturdy Yankees was a 30-year-old married farmer by the name of Lewis Quimby Smith.

One hundred and forty years later, a New Hampshire physician, a former naval flight surgeon and history/genealogy researcher named Alan Fraser Houston, learned of the existence of a distant relative's (Lewis Q. Smith) pocket diary for the year 1864.

Smelling the potential for an article based on the diary, Dr. Houston inquired of the local historical society for the existence of any other Smith related material. What he found was truly outstanding - more than 125 letters both to and from Lewis Smith. The article quickly involved into a full-fledged book Keep Up Good Courage.

The large collection of Smith letters allows the reader to see both sides of the correspondence, from the soldier's missives and often from the family member or friend at home. The letters give an excellent picture of not only Smith's war experiences, but also the reaction to the conflict on the home front and myriad details of the life of rural 19th-century New England farm families.

The 14th New Hampshire was a well-traveled unit, eventually becoming part of the Union 19th Army Corps (the 9th Corps wasn't the only "geography class" in the Union forces). Smith served in the Washington defenses, occupation duty in New Orleans and in parts of the Red River Campaign. In addition he saw action in the Shenandoah as part of Sheridan's 1864 Valley Campaign, and, finally, occupation duty again in Savannah, Ga.

Smith served just under three years in the Federal army, seeing duty in six Southern states and taking four sea voyages. After the war he returned to Sandwich and farming, became a member of the local G.A.R. and lived to a venerable age of 81, passing away in 1913.

Keep Up Good Courage weaves the many letters both to and from Smith with a well-written narrative by Dr. Houston which utilizes material from local and national newspapers, secondary sources and letter and reminiscences of other members of the 14th.

The book is amply illustrated with photos of the unit and Smith family members, of various artifacts and with illustrations and photos of various places that figure into the 14th's story. One problem with the book is the lack of detailed maps that illuminate the 14th New Hampshire's role in various battles such as Third Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek.

Keep Up Good Courage (which, by the way, is an oft-used phrase in the letters both to and from the war) is a well-constructed slice of Civil War history giving the often rare perspective of both sides of the correspondence. Those interested not only in the common soldier of the conflict, but the home front as well, will find much enjoyment in this book.