Table Of ContentPERSONAL CONFEDERACIES:
WAR AND PEACE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH, 1840-1890
By
JAMES J. BROOMALL
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2011
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© 2011 James J. Broomall
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To Tish
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In writing this acknowledgement, a highly personal endeavor, I see it as only fit to
break orthodoxy in acknowledging those closest to me at the beginning rather than the
end, for it is upon them I have leaned most heavily. My parents not only offered the
emotional support to sustain a flagging spirit during the trials of graduate school but also
generously sacrificed vacations, resources, and time to join me on prolonged research
trips, read untold papers, and patiently hear me out during my many diatribes. Their
love and support provide a constant guide. During my first year in graduate school at
the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, while pursuing a degree in Museum
Studies, I met Tish Wiggs. Several years and states later she remains my constant
companion, my best friend, and now my beloved wife. I have dedicated this dissertation
to her as reflection, however small, of my respect, admiration, and love. This work is as
much hers as mine and without her firm trust, constant help, and unwavering faith I’d
still be working on Chapter One. It is an unparalleled joy to have Tish in my life.
Among my friends in North Carolina, Jeff Curry, Ernie Dollar, Chris Graham, Chris
Meekins, and David Southern provided unwavering support whenever home and helped
form many of the ideas underpinning this work during our long, meandering
conversations. My in-laws, Sefton and Cheryl, have always given me a warm home to
visit. In Delaware and beyond, Rob Burdick, Matt Williamson, and Steve Wismer have
remained the best of friends.
I found a warm, welcoming, and sustaining home at the University of Florida.
Among my peers I benefited from conversations with and the comments of Joe Beatty,
Joel Black, Clay Cooper, Jim Flook, Matt Hall, Allison Fredette, Jenn Lyon, Ben Miller,
Chris Ruehlen, Dan Simone, Taylor Patterson, and Angie Zombek. In particular, coffees
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with Angela Diaz, bike rides with Scott Huffard, local dinners with Heather Bryson,
elaborate dinners with Jason Daniels, football games with Roger Smith, and beer with
Brian Bredehoeft always provoked long, thoughtful conversations that directed this work
and me in manifold ways. Thank you all so much for your friendship and your help.
Among the faculty, Professor Steve Noll patiently guided me as a naive teaching
assistant and then later as a teaching associate; I constantly strive to animate my
classroom and my teaching as Dr. Noll does each day. Professor Ben Wise offered
numerous books, critical readings, and gentle advice that pushed my work in new and
fruitful directions. Committee members Sean Adams, Matt Gallman, Jon Sensbach, and
Sevan Terzian each carefully read this document, offered trenchant comments, and
provided outstanding examples of scholarly rigor. Professor Gallman, in particular, has
been with this project and me since the beginning and always provided thoughtful
advice, wonderful references, and careful guidance. The committee’s time, care, and
attention is deeply appreciated. The dissertation’s chair, William A. Link, is a person of
untold generosity, charity, and goodwill. He has eagerly read every word I have written
since I entered graduate school and always asked for more. Such dedication is more
than I could have hoped for in a mentor and his example of scholarly productivity and
rigor is more than I can ever hope to match. Through constant phone calls and emails,
on racquetball courts and bike trails, at coffee shops and conferences, Dr. Link served
as an unwavering guide lifting me up when I needed help and pushing me harder when
I became lazy. Working with Dr. Link and enjoying the company of his family has been
and continues to be one of my great pleasures.
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Beyond the protection of Keene-Flint Hall I found a welcoming academic
community that proved to be, truly, a community. During a one-year teaching
appointment at Virginia Tech, Mark Barrow, Joe Forte, Dennis Hidalgo, Marian Mollin,
Matt Saionz, Dan Thorp, and Peter Wallenstein provided support and help when I truly
needed it. Over the years, at sundry conferences, Paul Anderson, Bill Blair, David
Brown, Paul Cimbala, Catherine Clinton, William Davis, Barb Gannon, Jeff McClurken,
Andy Slap, and LeeAnn Whites provided formal and informal comments that greatly
advanced my thinking. Aaron Sheehan-Dean has generously given his time to my work;
the clarity of his comments is unmatched and our conversations are always illuminating.
Brian Luskey offered a very thoughtful reading of material underpinning Chapters 3 and
4 during a critical period of methodological configuration. Finally, Peter Carmichael has
been a trusted confident, good friend, and intellectual companion since we first met—
every email exchange and face-to-face meeting with Pete is pure joy.
In researching this project and writing this work I benefitted greatly from
generous outside support. I would like to formally acknowledge both these institutions
and the awards they granted: the Louisiana History Research Fellowship awarded by
the Louisiana State University Libraries’ Special Collections; the Research Appointment
Fellowship awarded by the Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina;
and the Archie K. Davis Fellowship awarded by the North Caroliniana Society,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The University of Florida’s History Department,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Richard J. Milbauer Chair provided
generous support for conferences, research, and travel. All of the mistakes and errors
herein are the fault of the author solely.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER
1 CONSTRUCTING SOUTHERN MEN ..................................................................... 11
2 BOOKS AND BEARS ............................................................................................. 26
Words ..................................................................................................................... 29
Actions .................................................................................................................... 42
Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 59
3 WORDS AND WAR ................................................................................................ 60
Education ................................................................................................................ 62
On the Eve of Secession ........................................................................................ 73
Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 84
4 INTO THE DARK FOREST OF DESPAIR .............................................................. 85
Leaving for War ...................................................................................................... 88
Uniforming an Army ................................................................................................ 95
Camp and Field .................................................................................................... 106
Field of Battle ........................................................................................................ 121
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 136
5 CIVIL WARS CONTINUED ................................................................................... 139
Homeward Bound ................................................................................................. 141
Carnage and Chaos .............................................................................................. 145
Authority Restored ................................................................................................ 160
Civil War to Personal Peace ................................................................................. 168
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 183
6 PERSONAL RECONSTRUCTIONS ..................................................................... 185
Personal Transformations ..................................................................................... 189
Discontented Confederates .................................................................................. 203
Ignominious Oaths and Contested Citizenship ..................................................... 220
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 229
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7 FALLEN CONFEDERACIES AND INVISIBLE EMPIRES ..................................... 231
White Carolinians and Their Causes .................................................................... 234
Ghosts of the Confederacy ................................................................................... 252
Landscapes of Terror ............................................................................................ 263
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 274
8 PAPER SOLDIERS .............................................................................................. 276
Wars Remembered ............................................................................................... 279
Confederacies Continued ..................................................................................... 296
Civil Wars Closed ................................................................................................. 303
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 312
9 RECONSTRUCTING SOUTHERN MEN .............................................................. 314
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 318
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 342
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Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
PERSONAL CONFEDERACIES:
WAR AND PEACE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH, 1840-1890
By
James J. Broomall
December 2011
Chair: William A. Link
Major: History
This study explores the personal lives and cultural expressions of white
Southerners during the crucial period of 1840 to 1890 focusing specifically on men who
became Confederate soldiers. Many previous works have artificially divided southern
history into prewar, wartime, or postwar periods, thereby missing rich opportunities to
understand overlapping influences and to examine patterns of behavior over time. My
project considers Southerners across this central epoch to describe and understand the
thoughts and emotions, which governed their lives. This work advances a new
framework for examining some of the central issues and questions in nineteenth-century
southern history by conjoining the typically bifurcated areas of men’s personal and
public lives. This study seeks not only to understand Southern whites on their own
terms but also to explain their actions within a cultural context.
Illuminating men’s inner experience of themselves penetrates the changing
nature of personal and social relationships. This work argues that an honor-based,
antebellum culture created distances among men and required clenched emotional
expression, at least publicly. Subordinates rarely questioned elite whites, men who
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commanded themselves and their emotions with a firm hand. The exigencies of civil war
forced the reconfiguration of these norms, as Southerners were thrown together for
prolonged periods of time under intense strains—all the while being separated from
suffering families. With military defeat white men questioned themselves as never
before, sometimes suffering from terrible self-doubt. The crisis of war necessitated new
models of expression between veterans and among men and women; unharnessed
feelings became a necessary mechanism to cope with the traumas of wartime
experiences. So, too, did whites embrace a virulent, martial masculinity, which they
wielded during Reconstruction and beyond to suppress freedpeoples and restore white
rule. Thus, in the wake of Civil War, contrasting models of private and public expression
emerged, which were born from the exigencies of war and the crisis of defeat.
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