Wilson Collection: Same-Sex Desire in the Civil War

(Civil War soldier carte de visite photograph, taken during 1861-1865)

Same-Sex Desire in the Civil War

The Civil War included soldiers with same-sex desires. For example, in his memoirs Union General Sheridan tells of a pair of women--two “Amazons”--who somehow enlisted as soldiers. While in the army “an intimacy had sprung up between them.” They “secured a supply of 'apple-jack,'” “got very drunk,” fell in a river, and nearly drowned. During resuscitation “their sex was disclosed.”

About an all-male soldier dance, an infantryman reported, “For ladies we had boys in ladies clothes...I guess some of them did get layed with. I know I slept with mine.”