NO PLACE FOR LITTLE BOYS: Civil War Letters of a Union Soldier, edited by Melissa MacCrae and Maureen Bradford, illustrated by David J. Priesing, Goddess Publications, 120 pages, $14.95.

“Between the muster in Bangor, August 21, 1862, and the last gun at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, the rolls of the First Maine Heavy Artillery bore the names of 2,200 men, of whom 441 were killed in action or died of wounds; 922 were wounded and 215 died of disease. … They mean that 62 of every 100 men of the 2,200 were killed or battle-marked. … So to the First Maine Heavy Artillery belongs the distinction of having lost the largest number of any regiment in the service by battle and the largest per centum of the total number of men enrolled. It heads the list of fighting regiments in battle losses.” — “The First Maine Heavy Artillery 1862-1865” by Horace H. Shaw and Charles J. House, 1903

“No Place For Little Boys,” edited by Melissa MacCrae and Maureen Bradford, brings to mind Margaret Atwood’s “The Robber Bride” and the protagonist, Tony, who is tiny, a woman historian and college professor who reconstructs battles in her basement with miniature figures. Women re-enacting, contemplating, or editing war.

In the collection of these Civil War letters, written mostly by Peleg Bradford, Jr., who lived, died, and is buried in Carmel, the human side of carnage is revealed. “No Place For Little Boys” is a compelling book. The editors wisely chose to leave the spelling of the letters in their authentic version, lending a view into the personal life of Peleg that would have been erased if the corrections had been made. This book takes the flatness of history and rounds it out with humanity.

MacCrae says, “I was surprised that I enjoyed editing the book, because the writer ably captured the human side of what the war meant to him. From then on, that was how the book appeared to me, not as a war story, but as a story of humanity and human frailty.”

MacCrae would receive a call daily from Bradford, an avid reader who had inherited the transcribed letters from her mother-in-law. Bradford would read MacCrae a letter each time she called. The original letters, of which there are copies, were held by the grandson of Peleg, Richard Bradford of Orono, until he donated them to special collections at the University of Maine at Orono. Bradford wanted to do “something” with the letters and MacCrae’s lifelong dream was to write or collaborate on a book. The result was “No Place for Little Boys.”

The letters use an economy of words to convey, in the unstated and understated, actual events of the day, which are expertly annotated by the editors. The general all-purpose view of war is erased, and as a reader you encounter a young man’s view — Peleg in his early 20s at the time he served in the Civil War — on politics, love, money, history, war, family and more.

As you read the letters, which draw you deeper and deeper into the life of Peleg and those around him, you can hear and see what he experiences. You live his life through the often one-sided correspondence. His insistence on a reply from home to his family the moment they receive his letter, or his request for a pair of boots, socks or shirt tell a story of depravation and bravery in the face of hardships and loneliness.

The editors do not claim to be historians, but belie that claim in their use of the book, “The First Maine Heavy Artillery,” to substantiate the letters and references made to persons, places and battles. A few copies of this reference book, which was published in 1903, exist in the Bangor Public Library and special collections at UM’s Fogler Library. MacCrae hopes to republish it as a future project.

This book, however, blossomed when David Priesing began to illustrate the letters. Priesing was captivated by the letters, which are hauntingly as fresh today as they were in the 1860s. The drawings anticipate and complete the quality of the letters in the book through their sparseness and insightful interpretation. Prints of the illustrations are also available.

Who besides Civil War re-enactors might want to read such a book of letters? Mothers with sons who have gone off to war. Fathers who have struggled with the difficulties of raising a family. Those looking for romance. Local historians with an interest in recreating the lives of ordinary people. In this thin volume, there is something for many readers to contemplate, learn from, and enjoy.

Used as a textbook, in tandem with the annotations, this work could serve as a jumping-off place for classroom discussions that investigate the many subjects Peleg addresses in his letters. They include the conditions of war, the politics of the era and the issue of encountering freed black slaves while serving a war one might not believe in, but enlisted in in order to earn money, to see the world beyond home, and to return there to a full and vivid life. This book appeals to the reader beyond the usual Civil War buff; this book is a book that reveals the human side of war.

Melissa MacCrae will read from the Civil War letters during a special Veterans Day program beginning at 2 p.m. Nov. 11, at Borders Books, Music and Cafe in Bangor.