Soldier’s letters reveal Civil War experience

MAINE TO THE WILDERNESS — The Civil War Letters of Private William Lamson, 20th Maine Infantry, by Roderick M. Engert, Publisher’s Press Inc., North South Trader’s Civil War, P.O. Drawer 631, Orange, Va. 22960, 108 pages, $15.95.

Perhaps the most impressive Civil War book to come off the presses in recent months is editor Roderick M. Engert’s compilation of letters of a young Sebec youth in “Maine To The Wilderness — The Civil War Letters of Private William Lamson, 20th Maine Infantry.”

The 20th Maine has been championed in print in fiction and nonfiction accounts and through countless television and movie sagas, but no more poignant rendition of that historically heroic division and its brave participants exists than this book.

Lamson, barely old enough to face the trials of the real world at the tender age of 19, is thrust into the surreal world of combat in Engert’s fine edition.

War letters home are not often what the historian seeks in efforts to research facts regarding battle strategies, military schemes, or, ironically, even the war itself. What emerges usually is the day-to-day confrontations with loneliness, fatigue and fear, a fear that transcends normal fright and often results in humor or escape letters to ease the concerns of loved ones at home.

According to John J. Pullen, author of “The Twentieth Maine,” who also wrote the preface to this book, the most important things in military service are the creature comforts, or lack of them.

What a soldier had to eat, the weather in which he had to live and work — his physical ailments, and his means of shelter all are described to his loved ones at home.

The striking quality of these accounts, however, rests not in the stark surroundings of the battlefield, the knee-deep Virginia mud, or the accompanying severity of the climate after sundown. These the author seems to take in youthful stride. Although the reader suffers with Lamson and feels his pain, it is the young man’s capacity to make light of the most dire conditions, a quality that will endear him quickly to even the casual peruser of these letters.

During his Civil War lifetime, Lamson fought in several battles, including the Battle of Gettysburg, where he helped defend Little Round Top. Through it all, including a three-month stay in an Army hospital for the dysentery that plagued thousands (diseases such as this and smallpox killed twice as many soldiers as bullets did), Lamson remained upbeat and positive about his patriotic experiences.

Seldom complaining, he added a homey touch to his correspondence that offered reassurances of better things to come for him and his family.

Young Lamson never returned to those who hung on his every word from the front. He was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness, far from the small town of Sebec.

Editor Engert has captured the spirit of camaraderie among the troops, the spirit of family during wartime, and the essence and spirit of one young man’s life through his 38 letters home.

This volume belongs on every Civil War enthusiast’s bookshelf, for its glimpse into the heart of the soldier is as epic as any big-screen event told in a four- or five-hour movie.

THE PENQUIS TOP 10 … AND THEN SOME, by William R. Sawtell, The Maine Paper Pusher and D&B Printing Service, Dover-Foxcroft, 132 pages, $10.

Maine author William R. Sawtell again has taken great pains in capturing small-town life in his latest entry into his impressive library of rural titles in “The Penquis Top 10 … And Then Some.”

Sawtell’s special love for the Brownville, Brownville Junction, Milo and LaGrange area takes a neat twist in this volume, for the author chronicles the history of Milo’s Penquis Valley High School, a 25-year account that highlights key figures such as popular administrators, teachers, coaches and support staff, all of whom played a vital role in making the transition from a single-town high school, to a brand-new, vibrant, multitown consolidation a smooth one.

By concentrating on one school administrative district, in this case SAD 41, Sawtell has explained the history of the once-controversial consolidation process in our state.

Sawtell again emerges as a fine writer and a dedicated historian. Few can match his penchant for detail, and few can equal his love for his subjects — the people and events that have shaped our local history.

Ron Brown lives in Bangor.