Customer Reviews

Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War: A Compendium

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Queen Victoria allegedly rejected a clause in Britain's Criminal Law Amendment Act that would have criminalized lesbian acts on the grounds that she didn't believe women did such things. She had no inkling of how much the ideal can differ from reality, but your understanding of The War Between The States will not be handicapped the same way once you read "Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War - A Compendium." Intriguing, absorbing and at times hilarious, Doctor Lowry provides a scholarly and witty pageant of Civil War venery replete with floozies, panderers, rapists, libertines, buggerers, homosexuals, cross-dressers, syphilitics, foul mouths, and other lewdsters. This lucid, painstakingly-researched study joins the author's other fresh, pioneering books: "Don't Shoot That Boy! Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice" ; "Curmudgeons, Drunkards & Outright Fools - Courts-Martial of Civil War Union Colonels" and "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell." "Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War" is an exemplary piece of historical craftsmanship. Every page contains rich human detail, and Lowry's lively style carries you along with your enthusiasm and curiosity undimmed. The book draws on a wide range of sources, from the wartime newspapers of Richmond, Virginia, to primary documents saved by those Lowry calls "the unsung heroes of record preservation: garbage men, policemen, ordinary citizens, and manuscript dealers." "The former rescue the documents, while the latter catalog them and offer them for sale to people who will treasure them." The variety of evidence used is ingenious, and makes sense. This tour through the hearts and (naughty) parts of Civil War America deserves a place in your library next to books on artillery in the Civil War, cavalry in the Civil War, etc.

This book contains excellent stories-which are true-for potential movies at Sundance Festivals with their horse sex and childhood rape. Original court-martial records carefully collected and culled by Dr. Lowry and his wife form the basis for the 1.036 stories of lust and vicious usually fueled by alcohol. What could have been repetitive listings of cases are instead an intertaining and factual presentation of what actually happened. It has been fleshed out by materia; from laborious searches of letters, diaries, books, unit records, newspapers and Dr. Lowry's knowledge of classic literature and psychiatry. It provides insight into the society of the time, relationship between sexes, and racial attitudes; not available before or presented so honestly. What is amazing is the wide variations in the forms of punishment when the man was judged guilty. Officers not infrequently received only a reprimand and dismissal. Enlisted men were sent to prison, and had hard labor, were branded, wore a chain and ball (10-30 lb) or were executed. Men convicted of rape did not have therapy sessions or long investigations of their childhood but were frequently hung or shot the next day. For the military historian, the units are indexed. This book is not for the faint of heart but is important at a time when "politacally correct" editors or academicians block or delete history when it might offend someone. Jack Welsh, M.D. Ret. Physcian and Author

Behind the images of gallant soldiers and flying flags were very human individuals....and the Victorians, for all their stereotypes of prim-and-proper, really weren't that different from The Rest Of Us Today.

As he did in "Sex In The Civil War: The Story The Soldiers Wouldn't Tell", Dr. Lowry has assembled thousands of accounts of mating, fornicating, perverting, cursing, and general cavorting from Confederate and Union military records, newspaper accounts, diaries, and letters home.

As educational and enlightening as all this is, the manner in which it's presented is as entertaining....Dr. Lowry's dry delivery is sometimes as hilarious. (The chapter on cursing, and how VP Dick Cheney carried on the proud tradition of HIS Civil War ancestor, had me rolling on the floor)

If you're tired of reading dry details of battles, or just want to know what great-great-grandpa did in the war....look no further. The guys underneath that blue and gray were pretty much like us.

Thomas P. Lowry and his researcher wife Beverly A. Lowry have been doing a Herculean labor of digging up and creating a digital database of 90,000 of the surviving Civil War Records of the armies of both the Union and Confederacy. All future Civil War Scholars and writers will owe a debt of gratitude to this husband-wife team. This is the seventh non-fiction history book that the authors have been involved in creating.
This volume includes 1,036 true stories--many of which consist of a trial or military court marshal verdict of a sentence or two. The book is fascinating because in addition to covering the sexual misbehavior of the Civil War, it also provides a brief history of prostitution and rape throughout history. Society and the media have definitely conspired to revise the history of the world. We Americans have been living in sheltered bubble. Prostitution and rape have been rampant throughout history. Prior to the Civil War in this country every single town, village or city had busy brothels. If anything, prostitution was much more prevalent than it is now. What an eye opener!
Lowry has another excellent and readable book in print entitled "The Stories the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War" that also focuses on the prostitution problems during the Civil War. (Please enjoy my reader's review of this book as well). While that book focuses mostly on the medical problems associated with prostitution and why both the Union and Confederate Armies had to try and stop the diseases from crippling their armies, this book is more comprehensive and not confined to medical needs and reports. VD was costing more soldier's health than battles.
The brief over-all historical views of prostitution and rape were particularly interesting. In addition to the opinions of Genghis Khan on rape, and the Hittite penalties for different kinds of rape, the important contributions to religion made by Temple Prostitutes of Sumer as early as 5,000 years ago when they basically provided the income to run the religious systems were detailed. Many references in the "Old Testament" to rape and prostitution are also cited. "Deuteronomy 20:10 describes the divinely approved course of action after successfully besieging a city: kill all the men and use the women any way that pleases you." "In the same era, Exodus 21:7 laid out the rules for selling one's own daughter as a sex slave." "Judges 21:10, around 800 BCE, tells us how the Israelites kidnapped and raped 400 virginal girls of Jabesh-Gilead, after murdering the parents and brothers of the girls. The Israelites then encouraged the Benjaminites to kidnap and rape the girls of Shiloh." Somehow those parts of the Bible have eluded me for my entire lifetime. I don't ever recall them being mentioned in sermons or adult Sunday School instruction?
Most of the book does stick to the subject of illicit sex during the Civil War but most of that misbehavior wasn't in the form of rape resulting in military court marshals but drunken soldiers not being able to tear themselves away from the brothels in order to get back to camp without being listed as AWOL or deserters.
The last chapter of the book includes "A Vast Miscellany" that includes photographs of erotic folk art made by bored soldiers among other subjects. There is a very detailed index that includes the name of every person mentioned in various military court marshals. This is another must for Civil War buffs, scholars and historians. Be prepared to be shocked at how history has been so censored and white-washed for public consumption that it's no longer accurate in its portrayal of the life and times it is suppose to portray. The public has been lied to over and over again. Here is what the boring, bureaucratic official records of what really happened report.

wow what a eye opening book about how our boys in the civil war really were like
not all southern men were gentleman.nor our northern boys angels.
great reading,a little dry in places.

I was very tired of reading about all the filthy behavior of the people reviewed in this book. It is well written, though, and I give Dr. Lowry credit for being an intelligent man; however, I have to really wonder why we need so much of this type of information. I noticed that he said it is good for historians and others, as well as voyeurs. I would say that voyeurs would be the best audience for this book. The rest of us can get the message with about 1/10 of what is there.