1 Civil War Research Seminar, Keene State College, Spring 2020 The Book, Volume 3 Table of Contents Part I. Death and Culture. .and Art Chapter 1. Lydia Hurley, “The Reformation of American Children: How the American Civil War Left a Lasting Impact on the Lives of Children” website Chapter 2. Betsy Street, “Hard Tack, Ham Fat, and Death: Nelson’s Civil War” website Chapter 3. Graham Kaletsky, “Art and the Civil War” website Part II. Medicine and Science Chapter 4. Laura Ruttle, “‘Removed’: American Midwives in the Nineteenth Century and Civil War” website Chapter 5. Timothy Hastings, “Quantifying Inferiority: Scientific Racism, Biological Determinism, and the American Civil War” website Chapter 6. Ryan Goff, “The Evolution of Medicine Due to the Civil War” website Part III. Military and Soldiers Chapter 7. Kyle Gilmore, “Snipping the Sinews of War: How the Union Blockade Strangled the Confederate Economy” website Chapter 8. Cole Tollett, “The Texas Brigade” website Chapter 9. Zachary Grupp, “The Value of Southern Honor: How Confederate Irregulars Became American Outlaws” website Chapter 10. Michael Fremeau, “Pride in One’s Country or Hatred for the South? Why New England Soldiers Fought in the Civil War” website Part IV. Politics and Abolitionism Chapter 11. Amber Hobbs, “Running the Underground Railroad” website Chapter 12. Lydia Mardin, “Political Slavery and Personal Freedom: Federal Legislation of the Underground Railroad” website Chapter 13. Molly Ryan, “The Battle of Abraham Lincoln’s Reelection” website 2 Part I. Death and Culture. .and Art Chapter 1 Lydia Hurley, “The Reformation of American Children: How the American Civil War Left a Lasting Impact on the Lives of Children” It is August 3rd, 1864. Ten-year-old Carry Berrie writes in her diary, “This was my birthday. I was ten years old, but I did not have a cake times were too hard so I celebrated with ironing. I hope my next birthday we will have peace in our land so that I can have a nice dinner.”1 Atlanta, Georgia had been under siege since May of that year, with the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman leading the campaign. For young Carry, life had turned from school and play and a few chores to fear and desperation, starvation and hardship, and all that she could hope for was a comfortable meal, and a home without the threat of war. Life for the children of the Confederacy went on, though it would continue to be upheaved both during and after the war. Many historians, such as James Marten and Ronald Butchart, believe that throughout the country, the Civil War would be a catalyst for educational reform and the slow development of a more modern notion of “childhood” as we know it today. Children throughout the nation, North and South, soon found that the war would leave a lasting impact on their lives; their childhood, their education, and their futures. However, it 1 American Civil War, “Civil War Diary of Carrie Berry.” American Civil War, https://americancivilwar.com/women/caNerrie_berry.html. 3 was particularly the children in the South that would see the most destruction, and in the end, the most change. Some change, like the drastic education reforms that kicked in during Reconstruction, would ultimately lead to a better future for many children. It was not their education alone that would be affected by the war. While the education reforms that came out of the Civil War perhaps were the longest and most obvious echo for children, there were other aspects that also would change childhood in America as we think of it today. Boys as young as ten years old were marching with the armies as drummer boys and bugle blowers, witnessing the death and destruction that followed the path of the war. Young girls were helping their mothers to attend to the sick and wounded, coming face to face with the gory repercussions of battle. Homes were destroyed, schools were closed, brothers and fathers were lost, and the lives of these children would never again be the same.2 Today, it is not uncommon to see images of Civil War-era boys donning adorable uniforms, complete with a hat and a drum or bugle. These pictures are often deceiving in their innocence. The truth behind them is often darker; the truth of these photos was young boys, some as young as ten, waking at 5:30 am to rouse the soldiers, running into the thick of battle to spread the word of “retreat!” or “charge!” These children were often subject to scenes of horror and brutality, yet, according to Emmy Werner, a professor of child psychology and author of the book Reluctant Witnesses, there are very few documented instances of these boys abandoning their posts.3 2 Emmy Werner, Reluctant Witnesses: Children’s Voices from the Civil War, (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998). 3 Ibid., 10. 4 Other boys decided to skip the bugle blowing and enlist directly into the military. Though the official age required for enlistment was eighteen, it was often very easy for younger boys to enlist and lie about their age, so long as no one spoke up otherwise. Up to twenty percent of new recruits enlisting in the military, both Union and Confederacy, were underage.4 Many of these boys, some as young as fifteen or sixteen, enlisted with great enthusiasm, only for the reality of war to settle in later.5 Overlooking the battle field in Shiloh, seventeen-year-olds Henry Stanley and Henry Parker observed the ensuing chaos. Henry Parker was not watching the battle though; he was looking at the violets that surrounded his feet; he recommended putting a few in their caps. “Perhaps the Yanks won’t shoot me if they see me wearing such flowers, for they are a sign of peace,” he told his friend.6 Even amongst their enemies, boys on both sides of the lines recognized the horror and loss that was ensuing; sixteen-year-old John Cockerill observed a “beautiful” boy with curly blond hair, dead on the battle field wearing enemy colors. The boy was close to Johns own age, and John later wrote in his journal that, “at the sight of the poor boys corpse, I burst into a regular boo-hoo and started on.”7 Meanwhile, younger children at home were beginning to find themselves without a school to attend. Prior to the war, schools in the South were often locally funded, and relied on local people, especially church workers, to serve as teachers. As the South was mainly an agricultural economy, and considering the average white family could not afford slaves, many 4 Ibid., 9. 5 Ibid., 24-25. 6 Ibid., 24. 7 Ibid., 25. 5 children helped working on the farm or in the field, especially boys, while many girls stayed to learn household chores and help take care of younger siblings. Many of the available schools were significantly underfunded. In Alabama, the $500,000 that had been spent on public education in 1858 was slashed nearly in half by 1861, and by 1865 was at a low $112,000.8 In today’s money, that amounts to about $1,895,974. When compared to what Alabama currently spends on their public education, about $6,907,5399, it becomes clear that not nearly enough money was able to be diverted towards the education of their children. Of course, wealthier families often could afford to send their children to larger boarding schools, many of which were in the North. Schools like John B. Cary’s Hampton, Virginia Male and Female Academy was a place where only the wealthier class could afford to send their children. This Southern academy, along with many others like it, ran in an almost militaristic fashion, making many of its students well-prepared for life amongst the Confederate ranks. When war did arrive, however, the school was forced to shut down, as 20% of its faculty and 25% of its student population left to join the army.10 Before the Civil War, attendance in school was spotty at best, non-existent at worst, especially amongst the children of the lower and middle classes. The 1840 US census recorded that of the 3.68 million children between the ages of five and fifteen, only about 55% percent received a consistent education.11 In the North, compulsory, tax-funded schools had 8Gordon Harvey, “Public Education During the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.” Encyclopedia of Alabama, June 8, 2010, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2600. 9 “Education Spending Per Student By State.” Governing, June, 2018, https://www.governing.com/gov- data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html. 10Juanita Leisch, An Introduction to Civil War Civilians, (Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1994). 11 George Tucker, Progress of the United States in Population & Wealth in Fifty Years, (New York: Press of Hunts’ Merchant’s Magazine, 1843,) http://archive.org/details/progressuniteds00tuckgoog. 6 been open since about the mid 1800’s, the first one being in Massachusetts. In 1885, only sixteen states had compulsory education laws, the vast majority of them being Northern states.12 Schools in the North, prior to the Civil War, were a bit more formal than schools in the South. While education in more rural areas of the North functioned similarly to the South, many schools in the more industrialized cities required mandatory attendance. Compulsory school had long been enforced in most towns, though typically only for boys, though the enforcement of this, especially in less populated areas, was often shaky at best. School and education were more desirable in the more industrialized parts of the North because it created a better work, more intelligent work force; children who learned marketable skills, and, perhaps more importantly, learned to follow orders and accept structure and schedule.13 The desire for compulsory education in the New England also likely links to the fact that the New England, in the 17th century, was largely a Puritan region, and being able to read scripture was key to this branch of Christianity.14 Outside of the New England region, tax- funded schools were less popular, in favor of schools taught by different groups such as the Quakers or Catholics.