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The Civil War correspondence of Hezekiah Long.
When President Lincoln issued his call in 1862 for 300,000 more troops, 37-year-old Hezekiah Long of South Thomaston was among those to volunteer. He enlisted in September of 1862 as a private in the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment. Of inestimable value to modern Civil War historians and history buffs is the survival of 128 letters Long wrote to his wife, in which he recounts his wartime experiences and chronicles the major campaigns of the 20th Maine. On a more personal level, he writes home about the poor food, late pay, weather, poor living conditions, disease, and his own recurring battle with rheumatism.
The letters, whose existence has been unknown to historians until now, are published by permission of Charles Snowdale, a great-grandson of Hezekiah Long, and his wife Eleanor. They have been edited by Richardson's Civil War Round Table, who earlier published Soldiers In Green: Civil War Diaries of James Mero Matthews. The book is illustrated throughout with drawings, photographs, and maps.
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