Household War: How Americans Lived and Fought the Civil War (UnCivil Wars Ser.)

__Household War__ restores the centrality of households to the American Civil War. The essays in the volume complicate the standard distinctions between battlefront and homefront, soldier and civilian, and men and women. From this vantage point, they look at the interplay of family and politics, studying the ways in which the Civil War shaped and was shaped by the American household. They explore how households influenced Confederate and Union military strategy, the motivations of soldiers and civilians, and the occupation of captured cities, as well as the experiences of Native Americans, women, children, freedpeople, injured veterans, and others. The result is a unique and much needed approach to the study of the Civil War. __Household War__ demonstrates that the Civil War can be understood as a revolutionary moment in the transformation of the household order. The original essays by distinguished historians provide an inclusive examination of how the war flowed from, required, and resulted in the restructuring of the nineteenth-century household. Contributors explore notions of the household before, during, and after the war, unpacking subjects such as home, family, quarrels, domestic service and slavery, manhood, the Klan, prisoners and escaped prisoners, Native Americans, grief, and manhood. The essays further show how households redefined and reordered themselves as a result of the changes stemming from the Civil War. Introduction : the Civil War as a household war / Lisa Tendrich Frank and LeeAnn Whites -- The material world of Mary Todd Lincoln : her households in peace and war / Joan E. Cashin -- Householder and general : Lee's war as a household war / Joseph M. Beilein Jr. -- The divided houses of Ulysses S. Grant / Brooks D. Simpson -- The soldier's dream of home / Jonathan W. White -- "Now I can bear my ills patiently" : the expanding realm of Wisconsin households during the Civil War / Julie A. Mujic -- Written on the heart : soldiers' letters, the household supply line, and the relational war / LeeAnn Whites -- A "fearful family quarrel" : the Union assault on southern households as battle strategy / Lisa Tendrich Frank -- War's domestic corollary : Union occupation households in the Civil War South / Margaret Storey -- Creek and Seminole households on the trail of blood on ice / Andrew K. Frank -- "A terrible way to bring up children" : escaped prisoners and the home as site of war / Lorien Foote -- Disordered households : Reconstruction, Klan terror, and the law / Victoria E. Bynum -- Dead husband, dead son : widows, mothers-in-law, and mourning in the Confederacy / Angela Esco Elder -- Stand by your manhood : the United Confederate veterans and the rehabilitation of the Southern household / Brian Craig Miller -- Afterword : from household to personhood in America / Stephen Berry "Household War is a collection of essays that explores the Civil War through the household. According to the editors, the household served as 'the basic building block for American politics, economics, and social relations.' As such, the scholars of this volume make the case that the Civil War can be understood as a revolutionary moment in the transformation of the household order. From this vantage point, they look at the interplay of family and politics, studying the ways in which the Civil War shaped and was shaped by the American household. The volume offers a unique approach to the study of the Civil War that allows an inclusive examination of how the war 'flowed from, required, and . . . resulted in the restructuring of the household' between regions and those enslaved and free. This volume seeks to address how households redefined and reordered themselves as a result of the changes stemming from the Civil War. Scholars of this volume provide compelling histories of the myriad ways in which the household played a central role during an era of social upheaval and transformation"-- Provided by publisher Restores the centrality of households to the American Civil War. These essays complicate the distinctions between battlefront and homefront, soldier and civilian, and men and women. From this vantage point, they look at the interplay of family and politics, studying the ways in which the Civil War shaped and was shaped by the American household.