author
Martin A. (Martin Alonzo) Haynes
1842–1919
A Civil War veteran, newspaperman, and public servant from New Hampshire, he brought a reporter’s eye for detail to the stories he left behind. His best-known writing turns personal wartime letters into a vivid, ground-level record of the American Civil War.
1 Audiobook
A Minor War History Compiled from a Soldier Boy's Letters to "the Girl I Left Behind Me": 1861-1864
by Martin A. (Martin Alonzo) Haynes
About the author
Born in Springfield, New Hampshire, in 1842, he moved to Manchester as a child, learned the printer’s trade, and worked as a reporter before enlisting in the Union Army during the Civil War. He served for three years in the Second New Hampshire Regiment, an experience that later shaped the book for which many readers remember him.
After the war, he settled in Lakeport, New Hampshire, where he became active in journalism and public life. He founded and edited local newspapers and went on to serve in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, the state senate, and later in the U.S. House of Representatives.
As a writer, he is especially associated with A Minor War History, a memoir-like account built from his wartime letters. The book stands out for its direct, personal voice, showing the war not as distant history but as something lived day by day by a young soldier.