E-Book Overview
Over a decade ago, the publication of Divided Houses ushered in a new field of scholarship on gender and the Civil War. Following in its wake, Battle Scars showcases insights from award-winning historians as well as emerging scholars. This volume depicts the ways in which gender, race, nationalism, religion, literary culture, sexual mores, and even epidemiology underwent radical transformations from when Americans went to war in 1861 through Reconstruction. Examining the interplay among such phenomena as racial stereotypes, sexual violence, trauma, and notions of masculinity, Battle Scars represents the best new scholarship on men and women in the North and South and highlights how lives were transformed by this era of tumultuous change.
E-Book Content
Battle Scars: Gender and Sexuality in the American Civil War
Catherine Clinton Nina Silber, Editors
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BATTLE SCARS
This page intentionally left blank
BATTLE SCARS Gender and Sexuality in the American Civil War
Edited by Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber
3 2006
3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Battle scars : gender and sexuality in teh American Civil War / edited by Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13 978-0-19-617445-8 ; 978-0-19-517444-1 (pbk.) ISBN 0-19-517445-3 ; 0-19-517444-5 (pbk.) 1. Sex role—United States—History—19th century. 2. Women— United States—History—19th century. 3. United States—History— Civil War, 1861–1865—social aspects. 4. United States—Social conditions—To 1865. 5. United States—Social conditions— 1865–1918. I. Clinton, Catherine, 1952– II. Silber, Nina. HQ1075.5.U6B38 2006 305.3'0973'09034 2005048796
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
for Susan Ferber
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Contributors
ix
1 Introduction. Colliding and Collaborating: Gender and Civil War Scholarship 3 Nina Silber 2 Fighting Like Men: Civil War Dilemmas of Abolitionist Manhood 19 Stephen Kantrowitz 3 “Oh I Pass Everywhere”: Catholic Nuns in the Gulf South during the Civil War 41 Virginia Gould 4 “Public Women” and Sexual Politics during the American Civil War 61 Catherine Clinton 5 The Other Side of Freedom: Destitution, Disease, and Dependency among Freedwomen and Their Children during and after the Civil War 78 Jim Downs 6 Mary Walker, Mary Surratt, and Some Thoughts on Gender in the Civil War 104 Elizabeth D. Leonard 7 Embattled Manhood and New England Writers, 1860–1870 120 John Stauffer
viii
CONTENTS
8 Sexual Terror in the Reconstruction South 140 Lisa Cardyn 9 Politics and Petticoats in the Same Pod: Florence Fay, Betsey Bittersweet, and the Reconstruction of Southern Womanhood, 1865–1868 168 Anne Sarah Rubin 10 The Confe