Dangerous Liaisons: Working Women and Sexual Justice in the American Civil War

• Published in: European journal of American studies Vol. 10; no. 1
• Main Authors: Barber, E. Susan, Ritter, Charles F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London European Association for American Studies 01.01.2015; The European Association for American Studies (EAAS)
• Subjects: American Civil War; courts-martial; Rape; Sex crimes; sexual assault; Union Army; Women; United States > US; Virginia; American Civil War; Charles F. Ritter; Harriet Merrill; Callie Marie Rennison; Alice Kaplan; Crystal N. Feimster; Heli Askola; Cynthia Enloe; Edwin Stanton; Ervin L. Jordan; LeeAnn Whites; Sarah Jane Sedman; Union Army; Joseph Glatthaar; Susan Brownmiller; H. G. Meminger; Rape; Ann Cardon-Goyne; sexual assault; J. Robert Lally; Michael Fellman; E. Susan Barber; Amanda McGee; Michael E. Stevens; Abraham Lincoln; Mary Louise Roberts; John Y. Simon; Benjamin Butler; Jane Schultz; Raphaelle Branch; women; George Rable; Laura Sjoberg; George Meade; Martha Hodes; Alecia P. Long; Ann L. Barstow; Joseph Holt; Jr; Thomas P. Lowery; Drew Gilpin Faust; Julie Mertus; Fabrica Virgili; Lisa Heinemann; courts-martial; William Blackstone; Sandra Via; Victoria Bynum; Wendy S. Hesford; Bell I. Wiley
• ISSN: 1991-9336; 1991-9336
• DOI: 10.4000/ejas.10695

The American Civil War drew thousands of white and black women into paid and unpaid work for the Union and Confederate armies.  While the armies provided some women with a reliable income, their very proximity also represented a dangerous liaison that drew them into closer contact with Union troops that rendered them vulnerable to sexual assault.  By 1865, more than four hundred Union soldiers had been court-martialed for sexual crimes against white and black women and girls. At the war’s onset, the Union’s judge advocate corps, which tried soldiers for violations of the articles of war, was ill-prepared to adjudicate sexual crimes. By the war’s end, however, an ethic of sexual justice emerged from Union military courts to provide women with a means of redressing their wartime sexual violation.