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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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A Handful of Providence: The Civil War Letters of Lt. Richard Goldwaite, New York Volunteers, and Ellen Goldwaite.
Edited by Marti Skipper and Jane Taylor.
Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 280 pp., 2004. McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, $53.95 plus shipping.
The transcribed and annotated letters in this volume were written by husband and wife Richard and Ellen Goldwaite, who lived in the Albany, N.Y., area prior to the war. Richard, born in 1825, had served with the 1st New York in the Mexican War. He and Ellen married in January 1861 and four months later Richard enlisted in the 3rd New York. He participated in the engagement at Big Bethel and served with the regiment on guard duty in Baltimore until he resigned his lieutenant’s commission in March 1862. He then obtained a similar commission in the 99th New York and was active with that unit at Norfolk and Suffolk until discharged in June 1863. He went home to his wife and lived until 1899. Ellen passed away in 1910. The letters in this book are about equally split between husband and wife as authors. Ellen, as a newlywed wife, missed her husband dearly and so indicated in letter after letter. She wrote about family matters, the effects of the war on the New York home front, and about how she could hardly wait for Richard to come home. For readers looking for detailed military information, Richard’s letters will be disappointing. He did not delve into too much detail about Big Bethel, the fighting in the Dismal Swamp, and Longstreet’s operations around Suffolk. Rather, he also missed his wife, sent numerous letters about acquaintances in the army for her information, worried about his wife’s happiness and health, and other such information relative to a married couple. A series of 20 appendi-ces include official orders, newspaper clippings and other related material. On the whole, then, military historians will find little of value in this book because Richard more often than not did not write detailed accounts of his units’ movements to his wife. Folks working on the Northern home front, by patient reading of these letters, may find some nuggets of information about life in central New York during the first two years of the war.
Richard A. Sauers
Richard A. Sauers is the author of numerous Civil War books, including Advance the Colors!
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