Hard Breathing Days: The Civil War Letters of Cora Beach Benton, Albion, NY 1862-1865. Transcribed and Researched by Thomas R. Taber. 501pp., HC, DJ.

Hard Breathing Days

Transcribed and Researched by Thomas R. Taber

This collection of more than 160 letters from Cora Beach Benton to her Civil War husband Charlie lets you follow her life as she transforms from a young girl "who didn't know how to wash her handkerchief" to a proud wife who becomes "a woman to walk with, not a child to lead."

Follow her three year journey filled with worries, not just for her husbandís safety, but also for four brothers. Two older-Henry, an officer from Michigan, and Elias, a civilian who must escape the Confederacy-and two younger-"Hoddy," whose courage at Gettysburg makes him a family hero, and "Vallie," the "hard boy" who, at age 14, becomes the youngest "man" to serve with the 22nd NY Cavalry.

Charlie writes home near war's end that the 17th Battery boys intend to create a book about their hardships and adventures upon their return. Cora replies, "I think a true history of the weary, tried wives at home would be much more pathetic. Do you doubt it, darling?" Without realizing it, Cora had written that "true history."

This book gives you the Civil War home front on a personal level, as you read the nearly day-by-day account of life in a small Erie Canal village, during those "Hard Breathing Days"