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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Scars We Carve: Disruptive Bodies in Civil War Literature Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1zm0s6cg Author Johnson, Allison Marie Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “The Scars We Carve” Disruptive Bodies in Civil War Literature A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Allison Marie Johnson 2013 © Copyright by Allison Marie Johnson 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “The Scars We Carve” Disruptive Bodies in Civil War Literature By Allison Marie Johnson Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Michael J. Colacurcio, Chair “‘The Scars We Carve’: Disruptive Bodies in Civil War Literature” examines the presence of physical forms, marks, and scars in periodical literature produced during and shortly after the war in order to illuminate the ubiquity and significance of bodies in the literary record of the war. Presenting substantial archival evidence of how American civilians and combatants interacted with and represented the physical effects of war, this dissertation focuses especially on the disruptive bodies of injured and maimed combatants, African American soldiers, and war-torn women. The critical consensus on Civil War literature emphasizes the effacement of the individual in sentimental narratives of nationhood, sacrifice, and reconciliation. This study refutes and complicates such readings by demonstrating the rhetorical and discursive power of bodies touched and shaped by war. Though sentimentality did persist and many writers continued to write about war deaths in the same way they wrote about non-war deaths, a large number of Americans resisted reintegrative, reconciliatory, and apologist narratives, underscoring instead the effects of the war on individuals. The destruction and upheaval of war disrupted and complicated traditional ways of understanding and depicting death and wounding; ii in many texts created during the war, soldiers’ bodies refuse to rest quietly beneath the sod and missing limbs talk and tell of horror and suffering. The first chapter documents the ubiquity of female personifications of the Union and the Confederacy, examining the ways in which gender and nationality interact and intersect to assert that symbolic femininity is central to both sides’ understandings of the conflict and its stakes. The second chapter proposes a new way of reading Whitman’s Civil War poetry and prose, asserting that the bodies of dead and dying soldiers fill his pages, refusing to be ignored, silenced, or reintegrated into sentimental and reconciliatory conceptions of death and decay. The bodies of African American soldiers, the subject of the third chapter, disrupt and reject antebellum stereotypes of powerless slave bodies. Beginning with an analysis of literary and artistic depictions of slaves published during the first years of the war, the chapter traces the development of black men from slaves to soldiers to citizens in popular literature and visual culture. The left-handed penmanship contest that forms the focus of the final chapter also provides tangible evidence of the effects of war. Reading contest entries produced by amputees in conjunction with periodical poetry and prose focusing on amputation and its ramifications, this chapter underscores the centrality of the marked and maimed soldier body to the way in which soldiers and non-combatants understood and wrote about military service. “The Scars We Carve” brings to light a significant body of Civil War literature that disrupts or rejects narratives of reconciliation and records the horrors of war. In numerous poems and stories of the war, the individual body and its component parts, marked by violence or imbued with rhetorical power, testify to the “great evil” of war, the issues at stake in the conflict, and its lasting influence. iii The dissertation of Allison Marie Johnson is approved. Richard Yarborough Joan Waugh Michael J. Colacurcio, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv DEDICATION To my parents, Christopher and Patricia Johnson, for their unwavering support and love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………………v List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………vii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………..ix Vita……………………………………………………………………………………………….xi Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1 Columbia and Her Sisters: Personifying the Civil War………………………………….18 Chapter 2 The “Body Electric” Goes to War: Whitman’s Union and the Individual………………87 Chapter 3 “The bones of the black man”: From Slave to Soldier to Citizen………………………132 Chapter 4 “Empty sleeves that speak”: Missing Limbs and the Experience of War………………186 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………239 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Exasperation of John Bull at the News From the U.S. (1862)………………………28 Figure 1.2: A Short Blanket (1861)………………………………………………………………31 Figure 1.3: Jefferson Davis as an Unprotected Female (1865)………………………………….32 Figure 1.4: Maryland in Fetters (1861)………………………………………………………….40 Figure 1.5: The Re-Union of the Home of the Brave and Free! (1863)………………………….52 Figure 1.6: Columbia Awake At Last (1861)…………………………………………………….59 Figure 1.7: Check-Mate! (1865)…………………………………………………………………66 Figure 1.8: Abraham Lincoln’s Coffin (1865)…………………………………………………...80 Figure 1.9: The Return Home (1865)…………………………………………………………….86 Figure 3.1: Map of the Seat of War (1861)……………………………………………………..133 Figure 3.2: Untitled envelope (1861)…………………………………………………………...133 Figure 3.3: A Man Knows a Man (1865)……………………………………………………….134 Figure 3.4: Morning Mustering of the “Contraband” at Fortress Monroe (1861)…………….141 Figure 3.5: The Slave Owner’s Spectre (1863)…………………………………………………145 Figure 3.6: Venus and Napoleon (1861)………………………………………………………..151 Figure 3.7: The Persuasive Eloquence of the Sunny South (1861)……………………………..155 Figure 3.8: Remember Them That Are in Bonds (c.1861-1865)………………………………..155 Figure 3.9: “A Typical Negro” (1863)………………………………………………………….160 Figure 3.10: The Escaped Slave (1864)………………………………………………………...162 Figure 3.11: Taking an Observation from a Dark Point (1861)………………………………..166 Figure 3.12: Dark Artillery; or, How to Make the Contrabands Useful (1861)………………..166 vii Figure 3.13: Pardon and Franchise (1865)…………………………………………………….183 Figure 4.1: Civil War reminiscences by soldiers and sailors in Central Park Hospital………...187 Figure 4.2, 4.3: Handbills advertising the competition and exhibition…………………………199 Figure 4.4: Selection from “Left-Hand Penmanship” (1868)…………………………………..201 Figure 4.5: Photograph of Henry C. Allen……………………………………………………...203 Figure 4.6: First page of Henry C. Allen’s submission………………………………………...203 Figure 4.7: Photograph of George M. Bucknam………………………………………………..206 Figure 4.8: Final page of George M. Bucknam’s submission………………………………….206 Figure 4.9: Alfred D. Whitehouse’s second entry……………………………………………...208 Figure 4.10: The Empty Sleeve (1866)………………………………………………………….223 Figure 4.11: The Empty Sleeve (c. 1870)……………………………………………………….223 Figure 4.12: Illustration accompanying David Barker’s “The Empty Sleeve” (1863)…………223 viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank a wonderful group of family, friends, and colleagues who have been integral to the writing and completion of my dissertation project and deserve much more than a few lines on an acknowledgments page. The members of my committee, both past and present, provided invaluable advice, mentorship, and insight. The late, great Barbara Packer inspired me with her brilliance and grace. Willing to help even though he was busy on the other side of the country, Eric Sundquist read and gave feedback on one of my chapters. Joan Waugh kept me firmly grounded in the Civil War era and suggested helpful secondary sources. I cannot thank Richard Yarborough enough for his astute and incisive editing and advice. He also gave me extensive help with argumentation and style. Since my first day at UCLA, Michael Colacurcio has tirelessly supported my work, my academic career, and me. I am forever grateful to Prof C. for his unwavering advocacy and guidance. I am also grateful to the scholarly community and support staff at UCLA for creating an environment conducive to fruitful research and the profitable sharing of ideas. Christopher Looby and the Americanist Research Colloquium generously allowed me to workshop an early version of my Whitman chapter. Mike Lambert and Jeanette Wilkinson answered questions and fixed problems. Chris Mott helped me develop as a teacher and worked tirelessly to create a supportive community of educators. ix My friends have supported me intellectually, emotionally, and physically, helping me survive the dissertation process. Daniel Williford deserves special recognition for support both technical and emotional—he helped me number my pages and grow up. Fuson Wang and Alice Henton welcomed me as their honorary third roommate and provided a much needed and much appreciated refuge. Thanks to Meghan “Bucky” Kemp-Gee for food, yoga, frisbee, and so much fun. James Lumsden taught me to rock climb and made sure I didn’t fall. Vivian Davis showed me the ropes and led by example, making me laugh along the way. My circle of friends has my undying affection and my sincere apologies for all the bad puns. Special thanks go to my wonderful
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