Talk to feature letters written in Civil War

loading...

BANGOR – Melissa MacCrae never wanted to have anything to do with war. But come Monday, she’ll once again don the dress that transforms her into Emily Waugh Bradford and bring to life the Carmel woman who saw four sons go off to the Civil War – one of them wounded, another killed.

The author, who with Maureen Bradford edited the 1997 volume “No Place for Little Boys: Civil War Letters of a Union Soldier,” will take part in the “Bangor Reads” series at 2 p.m. Feb. 4 at Bangor Public Library.

Her talk is part of the series which has as its centerpiece the Civil War novel “Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara. Other activities during the series have included talks by local history librarian Bill Cook and by Diane Monroe Smith, author of “Fanny and Joshua,” about the Chamberlains of Brewer.

More than four years after working on “No Place for Little Boys,” a title that recalls what Peleg Bradford Jr. wrote his mother about the Civil War, MacCrae remembers clearly her resistance to working on this project.

Maureen Bradford, a relative of Peleg by marriage, would call her daily to urge her assistance in editing the letters, which had been transcribed and donated to Special Collections at the University of Maine by Peleg’s grandson, Orono resident Richard Bradford.

Finally MacCrae agreed, and in doing the project decided it was, after all, not so much a war story as “a story of humanity and human frailty.”

Frequently his letters would mention specific items he wanted his family to send along, and no doubt his mother had been pleased to hear from her son when he finally received one care package she sent him. He wrote her from his station with the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery:

I recived that box last Tuesday & was mutch pleased with the things. The boots was just the fit & the drawes & shirts was just what I wanted. After I got my new boots on I was six feat & four inches high and my weight is two hundred. Theair was some things in the box for Gust Corliss, but he nor Owen has not got along yet …

Peleg wrote to individual members of his family, and also to a special friend, Cynthia McPherson, later to become his wife and the mother of his eight children. After the war, he ran a sawmill and was a selectman in Carmel.

The slim volume shows much of Peleg’s humanity. His letters show him to be stubborn and funny, blunt and, in his own words, “tuff and hardy.” That attitude would serve him well when he was wounded in 1864 and had one leg removed.

Just four weeks later, he was again writing home that he was “first rate” and healing better than anyone else in the hospital.

Sadly, Peleg’s brother Owen was killed in the Civil War the following year. Brothers Bill and Bart also served in the war.

Once published, “No Place for Little Boys” seemed “to take on a life of its own,” MacCrae says now.

Various organizations throughout the state asked her to give talks and read from the letters, and eventually it just seemed right to do so as young Peleg’s mother.

It was during a reading at Borders Books, Music and Caf? in Bangor that Emily’s longings really came to the forefront for her. MacCrae’s son had joined the Army, too.

“My son was a soldier,” she explained quietly.

MacCrae signed books at many locations, but acknowledges that going to Bradford’s hometown of Carmel was special.

In January 1998 the Carmel Historical Society held a potluck supper which MacCrae attended, as did the book’s illustrator, David Priesing.

The pen and ink drawings in the book include one of the back side of the Bradford monument in Carmel. It reads:

Owen D. Co. F 1st Me. Heavy Art. Killed at Pettersburg Va., burried where he fell. Age 16 yrs 8 mo.

Despite the Bradford family’s sacrifices during the Civil War, MacCrae still doesn’t consider “No Place for Little Boys” a war book.

“All the letters are about wishing he were home. It’s about families – and love,” she said.

The authors know that not just from the letters, but from additional information they got from an interview with Peleg’s grandson, Richard Bradford.

While Peleg had been in the hospital in Washington, Owen’s regiment passed by and the younger brother was able to visit him for a moment.

“Owen tore his Army blanket in two,” Richard Bradford said, “rolled it up, and put it under the stump so he would be more comfortable.”

In addition to MacCrae’s talk, activities scheduled for Bangor Public Library during the “Bangor Reads” series include:

. Feb. 6 at noon: informal brown bag discussion group on “The Killer Angels.”

. Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.: scholar-led Book Discussion Group.

. Feb. 14 at 7 p.m.: slide show on Gettysburg with Bill Cook, local history librarian.

. Feb. 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: “Encampment Depiction with the 20th Maine, B Company.”

. Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.: “Meet Joshua L. Chamberlain,” with Brian Higgins: Children’s Program in Story Room.

For information, contact the library at 947-8336, or check www.bpl.lib.me.us.