author
Martin A. (Martin Alonzo) Haynes
1842–1919
A Civil War soldier, printer, newspaperman, and congressman from New Hampshire, he wrote with the plainspoken, firsthand feel of someone who had truly lived the history he described. His work is especially appealing for readers who enjoy memoir, local history, and 19th-century American public life.
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 later served three years in the Union Army with the Second New Hampshire Regiment during the Civil War. After the war, he settled in Lakeport, where he became a newspaper owner and editor and built a public career rooted in journalism and civic life.
He went on to serve as clerk of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for New Hampshire in the 1880s. Alongside his political work, he remained closely connected to writing and publishing, and that mix of public service and firsthand experience gives his books a grounded, documentary quality.
As an author, he is best remembered for works such as A Minor War History, drawn from a soldier's letters, and for local and historical writing connected with New Hampshire. He died in 1919, leaving behind books that feel both personal and historical, shaped by a life spent in print, politics, and memory.