Soldiers

As southern men transitioned to becoming soldiers in the Confederate Army, they increasingly began to identify as soldiers. Military attire distinguished soldiers from citizens and established visible bonds among troops. Military encampments similarly promoted a corporate identity but also allowed soldiers to bond in small, personalized space.

Words

Evidence found in the diaries and other private modes of expression written by antebellum southern white men show that the writers practiced forms of masculine performance expected of their class. Nineteenth century diarists showed a need to express themselves emotionally. Diary entries capture both the insular world of the family unit and engagements with the outside world, such as records of shooting parties.

Conclusion

The evidence of period diaries contrasted with post-war writings shows that Confederate veterans’ attempts at emotional expression were vastly altered by their wartime experiences. The public face of the Civil War became increasingly sanitized and reductive, while the privately expressed emotions became at once masked by public heroism and confused by private doubts and sadness.

Reconstructions

Though many former Confederate soldiers arrived home after the war as dazed and disheartened veterans, they soon came to strive for self-control and emotional moderation in an attempt to suppress the unfettered feelings expressed at the war’s end. By these means, the veterans reasserted a strong public face and regained mastery of many political, cultural, and social institutions.

Demobilization

A review of the demobilization of the Confederate Army from April 1865 and beyond. A long view of this act of demobilization demonstrates a range of postwar social, political, and military challenges that might otherwise be missed and illuminates how Confederate soldiers became citizens. While some former Confederates tried to continue the war’s aims outside of the United States, most soldiers journeyed home and then began to think about how to become a citizen again.

Introduction

Sets out book’s thesis and major themes. Abstracts the subsequent chapters chronologically.

Battle

Now fully immersed in their military experiences, Confederate soldiers struggled to express in letters to their families the scale and emotional impact of war’s carnage. The Battle of Gettysburg serves as a lens for the examination of the soldiers’ efforts to express their new-found emotional experiences in words. Through these efforts, the men’s self-perceptions and identities were often altered forever.

Violence

In an effort to re-establish the pre-war paradigm of white mastery over black people, Confederate army veterans founded the Ku Klux Klan. In addition to stoking fear among the black citizenry, the pseudo-military organization of the KKK allowed white southern men to reform soldier-like bonds within the civilian sphere.