Keep All My Letters The Civil War Letters of Richard Henry Brooks, 51st Georgia Infantry, edited by Katherine S. Holland, presents 77 letters written from May 23, 1862 to January 30, 1865 by Richard Henry Brooks, a private in the 51st Georgia Infantry, CSA, to his wife, Telitha, in Blakely, Early County, Georgia.

Brooks, 27, had enlisted in May 1862 in Company A of the 51st Georgia Infantry, which, after brief service in South Carolina, was ordered in July 1862 to Virginia to serve in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia under General James Longstreet. Private Brooks’ regiment, thus, saw action in most of the major battles in the Eastern Theatre.

He directed his wife, “Take care of all the letters that you get from me for if I live to get home I want to see all of them.” The letters, recently rediscovered in a Louisiana Civil War museum, contain advice on operating the family farm, rearing their three children, and the day-to-day life of a soldier, including casualties, laments about food, clothing, and the war.

He missed his wife and children, of whom he wrote, “Tell Them I will come home some time if I live an when I come I will bring them something pretty. do not let them forget me... I hope we will meet again in this Life but if we do not I want you to Raise our children Right...I hope if we never meet again on earth Let us try to meet each other in heaven...”

While initially he had supported the war, his letters show little martial spirit, but rather his love for his wife and home. Of Chancellorsville, while he did note the death of General Stonewall Jackson, he penned more lines giving directions on selling their slaves and feeding their hogs.

After Gettysburg, he wrote: “My Dear I am getting tired of this war. I think it will have to come to a close before long an I am afraid it will go against us for our men is getting a kill an crippled up so we have not got enough of soldiers to stand.” He closed by requesting another braid of his wife’s hair for the one lost in the battle.

Detached temporarily to Tennessee in September 1863, he despaired that “we should all pray for this wicked war to stop.” Finally in November 1863, he received his first and only furlough of 30 days, which he overstayed by almost two months, a common practice.

In April 1864, expecting a battle, he wrote only a note and explains that “my mind is on something else when I hear the cannons roar...our rations is very short...do not be uneasy about me I will do the best I can...”

Captured at Gaines Farm during the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864, he was thereafter a prisoner of war at Elmira Prison in New York, from which, regrettably, there are only two letters.

Holland wisely edits sparingly with spelling and punctuation and thus retains Brooks’ character. Via the introduction and footnotes, she fleshes out Brooks’ life, including his return home at war’s end and a synopsis of his long life until his death in April 1916.

Keep All My Letters, although of a soldier from southwest Georgia during the Civil War, is representative of any soldier in war and, therefore, a timely resource.

Keep All My Letters is an 132-page hardcover book with introduction, bibliography, and index. It is available from Mercer University Press, 1400 Coleman Avenue, Macon, GA 31207, or call 1-800-637-2378, ext. 2880; online Macon University Press. Or e-mail for help with ordering at Mercer University Press .

This review was published in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, FL), December 18, 2003, 2B.

Nov. 14, Dec. 29, 2003