This excellent book is a series of letters written by Louis Lehmann with commentary and explanation to place the letters in context. Louis Lehmann wrote in German to his wife in Brehman, Texas. Surprisingly his letters were discovered in Germany, then translated to English and returned to Texas.
Louis Lehmann served with Terrell's Texas Cavalry, then Col James B. Likens' 35th Texas Cavalry Regiment along the Texas Gulf Coast and the Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Both areas have received little attention, partially due to the scant amount of documentation, so this book provides previously unknown information and insight. Louis was so exact in his detail of events, the reader almost feels like he/she was there. The cold, disease, hunger, thirst, lack of money, shortages of all sorts, and other privations are vividly revealed.-So are the merits and foibiles of those around Louis.
Louis, a German-born farmer living with his wife and kids in Brehnam, Texas shares his opinions of the officers, enlisted men, mail service, and the cause. His opinions seem to flow based on his sucesses & failures in getting a furlough and the ups & downs of the Confederacy in Texas, Louisiana, and elsewhere.
Louis Lehmann was not fond of putting his life in danger so he realates in his letters that he was quite happy to miss heavy combat. Louis Lehmann's duty along the Texas Gulf Coast being shelled from Union gunboats/ironclads, meanwhile fighting with Union ground troops, tends to leave the reader understanding Louis' poiint of view. Later Louis was invloved in fighting around Alexandria, Louisiana and expressed distain for cowards/braggarts; Louis was neither.
Louis was captured May 16, 1864 near Marksville/Bayou de Glaise/Mansura, Louisiana and sent to a POW Camp in New Orleans where he became severely ill and was eventually exchanged. Letters from Lehmann's life as a POW are included.
One noteworthy item in the book which might spark amusement is Louis Lehmann's steadfast belief that coffee was an elixir for all illness, because the troopers who did not drink coffee often got sick, while coffee drinkers were well. Louis was wise to drink the coffee because, although he did not realize it, "boiling" the water to make coffee was the real protection.
The author of the book is the great-grandson of Louis Lehmann so the book provides information, letters, and photos of the Lehmann family, too. The aforementioned Lehmenn family information helps the reader visualize the people mentioned in the letters and their lives, but does not take away from the book being essentially a series of desriptions of life as an enlisted soldier in the CSA Trans-Mississippi Department.
The National Archives incorrectly places Louis Lehmann's unit as Ruben Brown's 35th Texas-Obviously a mistake. (There were TWO Texas cavalry regiments with the number "35" and both served for a time in the same location so records of Likens' men have been mistakenly placed with Brown's Regiment by the National Archives leading to a small set of index cards for Likens Regt and an over-sized set of index cards for Brown's Regt) Perhaps some family historians will make a discovery by reading this book...
Book can be ordered direct from the author at
http://www.edmundlburnett.com/#
or via Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Letters-Louis-Lehmann/dp/B004Q640PA/ref=cm_cr-mr-title