May 27th, 1876 - Johan

Dear Luna

Do you remember that summers day, when we were both twelve? You had snuck off from Mrs. Davisham’s watchful eye, and I had gotten the day off from the bellows, and we had set off into the woods together, searching for wild blackberries. It came to mind the other day as I trudged through a forest in training, and came across a blackberry bush. I was with Connor at the time, and upon finding the bush he set upon it with a passion, stuffing the berries into his mouth, just as you and I had done all those years ago! Of course, just as we learned, blackberry juice is want to stain, and heavy on the stomach, so that within several minutes the bush was stripped bare, and he was clutching his belly in pain. I helped him recover, only to have him receive a whipping from the sergeant for getting his blouse covered in blackberry juice, just as you returned home to a furious mother who had to clean your entire dress which was soaked in the sticky nectar! Ah how I remember those days fondly. I also remember blackberries fondly, if I am to tell the truth for our chefs seem convinced that we are actually on a ship at the high seas and must ration our meager supplies, rather then in the middle of the bountiful and plenteous countryside! We are lucky if our morning and evening meals are anything more then biscuits and salted beef, and they seem to dole out the greens with a miserly precision that would lead me to believe a massive famine has struck the country.

While we all bemoan this fact, no one is more vocal about it then Isaac, much to our irritation, for nothing is more horrid then agreeing with someone you hate. The worst though is the negative attention it draws upon us. Why, the other day, we were waiting for our food in line as we usually do and he began to berate one of the men handing out the meal! He claimed that it was fit only for dogs and that he would not eat an other bite, demanding real food. While we did not disagree with him, it is a common logic to never offend one who controls your food, made true by the measly portions that the rest of us received after Isaac’s outburst. That night the men were mutinous and I must admit I did not disagree with them. Many a sinister idea floated around us and it was only the prudent supervision of the sergeant that saved Isaac his hide. This sort of experience is typical of the man. He brings scorn and derision upon us when we would be all but the most admired squad of the regiment, and survives only by cowardly protection from the high ups and the good grace of myself and the rest of the squad. He is a thoroughly despicable and disgusting man, and foreign as I had suspected. His parents were turks, and he was raised with a traveling circus. To top this off he is a criminal as well! When caught stealing he was given the choice of prison or the Legion, so he is not even with us out of patriotic duty, which we could respect. He is a dark and swarthy man, several inches shorter then I but stalky and wide. He seems to maintain a suit of flab around him no matter how hard we work, and cultivates a thick black mustache in a thoroughly un-english fashion.

But enough of this horrid man. Life continues on. We have begun to learn the mechanics behind a howitzer, a topic I excel at do to my time spent in the shop with father. Colin has proven to be a wizard with math and has put us near the top of the other gunning squads for accuracy. I remain grateful for my placement with the big guns rather then continued foot slogging, for they appear to be worked to the bone daily, just as hard as the day we arrived. There has been rumors that when our training ends we will be given leave to return home for several days before we are shipped off. I pray daily that this is true, in the hopes that I might perhaps see you again, the mere idea of which sends shivers down my spine.

Love

Johan B Hackworth

May 21st, 1876 - Johan

My Dearest Luna

Often I wonder if you could possibly think of me as often as I do of you. As one breathes, or maintains their heart a-beating, so too are my thoughts of you. A necessity to keeps me alive. Often my mates will remark that I must have some mystic oriental power of concentration, for when we are faced with herculean challenges I often take on a dreamy, distracted air and breeze through it. The truth is that I think of you. Your lovely visage fills my mind and all troubles fall away like water off a waxed hide. 

Life continues as it has, my love. I have now finished what has been referred to as my ‘basic training’, the essential skills of soldiering which apparently consist of the ability to run for long amounts of time, dig a trench, march in formation, fire, load, and maintain a rifle, and some basic understanding of strategy. Naïvely I suspected that we were done with our training, and would be shipped off to the battlefields of mars. I was wrong though. Now we are having what has been referred to as ‘specialized training’. As far as I have been able to tell the different sorts of specialized training have been the cavalry, where they learn to fight on horseback (these chaps seem to have been destined for this, as all of the men in these squads have previous experiences with equines), artillery, where they learn to deal with cannons and howitzers, ‘Panzer’ (a German word meaning ‘armor’ apparently) who are not aloud to tell us what they are training with, and supplemental training, which appears to be more basic training. The vast majority have been alloted to supplemental training, which leads me to believe they are destined to the trenches like the bulk of Legion recruits. Of the some fifty five squads perhaps seven have been assigned to cavalry, artillery, or the mysterious ‘Panzer’ training, including my own! 

We have been proudly instructed to train with the artillery, what could be considered to be my first lucky break in my admittedly short time with the Legion. While supplemental training is more grueling drudgery and cavalry must spend hours upon hours on horseback, and the lord, in his infinite wisdom, only knows what those Panzermen get up to, we artillery men have so far had it easy. Though we have kept up a punishing routine of exercises to keep us fit, we spend huge portions of the day in the classroom, learning calculus and the physics of shell trajectory. As you know, I am no stranger to hard work, and if I had been when I arrived I certainly would not have been after the previous month, however I have always enjoyed learning and this education has stimulated my mind. We have not yet been set loose on the big guns, but I eagerly await the day when we are. 

Life continues to be hard my dearest, but I persevere. With time I have learned to survive the most arduous of difficulties, from the sadistic pleasures of our sergeant, to the nearly malicious failings of Isaac, both of which plague us daily. I hope you understand how much you help me in surviving it. 

Yours lovingly

Johan B Hackworth