Collateral Damage from a Legacy of Silence: Redefining Sexual Violence in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

This dissertation examines the often-overlooked issue of sexual violence during the American Civil War, challenging the myth of Victorian restraint and the romanticized notion of the "gentleman soldier." While traditional Civil War historiography has focused on military strategy, politics, and elite actors, this study foregrounds the experiences of civilian women, particularly enslaved and marginalized women, who were subjected to sexual violence at the hands of soldiers. Drawing on court-martial records, personal letters and diaries, newspaper accounts, and military documents, the paper argues that sexual violence was not an aberration but a systemic and strategic aspect of wartime conduct. It also explores why soldiers raped during the Civil War, emphasizing the breakdown of civilian norms, the psychological effects of combat, the dehumanization of the enemy, and the use of violence, including sexual violence, as a form of bonding, dominance, and control. Soldiers, often young and drawn from varied social classes, were thrust into a lawless, chaotic environment where the usual constraints of peacetime behavior eroded. Additionally, the entrenchment of slavery and racial ideologies allowed many soldiers, especially Union troops in the South, to view enslaved women as property, legitimizing their exploitation. Through interdisciplinary frameworks, including feminist historiography, trauma theory, critical race theory, and subaltern studies, the paper critiques the silences in historical narratives and underscores the importance of recovering the voices of victims. Ultimately, this study contributes to a more inclusive and honest understanding of the Civil War by exposing how sexual violence both reflected and reinforced broader structures of power, race, and gender in nineteenth-century America.