Hard Times, Hard Bread, and Harder Coffee: The Civil War Correspondence of Hezekiah Long, Company F, 20th Maine Infantry
Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 227 pp., 2008. Richardson’s Civil War Round Table, 16 Leeman Dr., Northport, ME 04849, $19.95 plus shipping. Perhaps no Union regiment has ascended to such popularity — largely due to its central role in the movie “Gettysburg” more than the 20th Maine Infantry. Before Hollywood discovered this gallant unit, veterans of the regiment, most notably Joshua L. Chamberlain, and modern scholars such as John Pullen, Thomas Desjardin and Alice Trulock published excellent works related to the 20th Maine and Chamberlain. These helped to tell the regiment’s story and cement its place in the popular consciousness of American history. Adding to the volumes on this regiment is Hard Times, Hard Bread, and Harder Coffee: The Civil War Correspondence of Hezekiah Long Company F, 20th Maine Infantry. Edited with care and a keen eye by a panel of 11 members of Richardson’s Civil War Round Table of Stockton Springs, Maine, Hard Times, Hard Bread, and Harder Coffee is a compilation of 128 letters written by Hezekiah Long to his wife Sarah. The letters are housed in a private collection in Searsport, Maine. The collection spans the entire life of the 20th Maine from September 1862 through May 1865 when it mustered out of service, thus providing an insider’s perspective on this most storied regiment. A succinct introduction by Daniel E. Peters provides necessary biographical information about Long, who enlisted as a private and eventually reached the rank of second lieutenant in the 20th Maine. The editors divide this large cache of letters into 12 chapters. They provide a brief introduction with each chapter to place Long’s letters into a proper historical context and offer explanatory footnotes throughout the work. The editorial style does not burden the reader and instead allows Long’s letters to be the volume’s focal point. The letters to his wife Sarah, which have largely been an untapped source until the publication of this volume, shed light on many of the typical issues that soldiers of both sides confronted while on the front lines: loneliness and longing for home, health issues, problems with pay, dealing with extreme weather conditions, and the general boredom of camp life. Additionally Hezekiah Long’s letters provide valuable information about the 20th Maine’s service. While his discussion of casualties, battle, and campaign experiences should attract the attention of military historians, social historians of the Civil War will also find Long’s letters useful. For example, scholars wanting to study the impact of war on fatherhood can glean much from Long’s communiqués. He was devoted to his regiment, as evidenced by his incessant worrying about the plight of his comrades during the spring campaign season of 1864. This is when “rheumatis” kept him off the field for several months while he convalesced in Finley Hospital in Washington, D.C, and Satterlee General Hospital in Philadelphia. Long also struggled with leaving behind his wife and seven children. Despite the obstacles of personal survival that stared him constantly in the face Long tried to parent from the front lines or his hospital bed. Additionally, this splendid collection of letters provides some examination into a soldier’s feelings about the presidential election of 1864. Long, who supported Abraham Lincoln’s re-election, worried that the Confederates might do something to disrupt the election or that there would be mischief on the home front. Hard Times, Hard Bread, and Harder Coffee is an untapped treasure trove of primary material that has a wide appeal. It is clear that this book was a labor of love for the editorial panel and all should be commended for their time, diligence and persistence in bringing these letters to publication. This collection is highly recommended. Reviewer: Jonathan A. Noyalas is a history professor at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Va., and the author or editor of four books on Civil War era history.
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