Thomas P. Lowry's Books

Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War

A Compendium

By: Thomas P. Lowry

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Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War

A Compendium

By: Thomas P. Lowry

Over three million young men left home, shouldered rifles, and set about killing one another in the 1860s. Behind, they left wives and sweethearts. The 50,000 books about the war have told us in meticulous detail about the strategy, tactics, weapons, uniforms, canteens, famous generals, religious beliefs, personality quirks, fortifications, battles, sieges, gunboats, medical care, and recruiting policies. The causes of the war have been endlessly analyzed. The surviving veterans wrote hundreds of memoirs, sometimes inflating their own heroism and importance. What rarely appears in this literature is any mention of sex, in spite of most soldiers being in their early twenties, a time of manly vigor. The late 19th century brought the ascendancy of Victorian prudishness and hypocrisy. The Comstock laws sent men to prison for mailing contraceptive advice. Just advice! Whatever willingness there might have been to reveal wartime hanky-panky evaporated in the tenor of the time and the admiring gaze of the veteran’s growing grandchildren. The following scene would be unimaginable: the old veteran sits by the stove in the country store. His long white beard covers his tattered vest. A faded medal graces his chest. On the floor are the shavings from his most recent whittling. A tiny child pipes up: “Tell us about the war, grandpa.” “Well, Jimmy, there was this pretty little whore in Memphis...” Never happen. Material collected twenty years ago resulted in the author’s 1994 book, The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell – Sex in the Civil War, which presented everything that was then known on the subject. There had been no previous book on Civil War sex. Since then, the author and his wife, Beverly, have read over 90,000 court-martials and countless letters and diary entries. What emerges is that sexual activity was far more common and public than our previous research or any memoir had ever revealed. The records come from literally every corner of the country: Key West, Washington Territory, Los Angeles, and Maine. The malfeasants are both officers and enlisted men. The victims range from six-year girls to sixty-year old grandmothers. The soldiers carried with them lewd books and obscene photos. Even more striking is the universality of houses of prostitution. Every village and every city neighborhood has at least one such—and everybody knew it. They knew the addresses of the houses. They knew the names of the madams and the names of many of the “girls.” Most of the witnesses for the trials had visited the houses, for the usual reasons. The military police tramped through the houses, looking for deserters. Rape, thought to be rare during the war, was not that rare. An unexpected finding was that Union soldiers, who were supposedly freeing the slaves, were quick to rape black women. An even more surprising finding was that the Confederate army had a policy of not prosecuting rapists, whether the victim was black or white. The inventor of the Graham cracker had, in 1834, written a book claiming that masturbation caused severe illness, even death. This idea had taken root in the medical profession and many army doctors testified that a defendant was not guilty because of “insanity from self-abuse.” The Union army’s largest hospital listed dozens men, dead from “masturbation.” The famous ship Monitor had a thick iron turret. In other such ships, the sound-proof turret proved a convenient place for old sailors to rape young boys. A Union cavalry colonel was tried for sexually assaulted both men and women. Evidence for Civil War homosexuality was unknown until now. Even more astonishing stories appear in the records: sex with horses, sheep, even with chickens and turkeys. There are records of obscene tattoos, foul cursing by Winfield Scott Hancock, black and white mistresses of Confederate generals, even many records of “fornication and bastardy” in the little village of Gettysburg. Ads fo

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Page Count

339

Publisher

Xlibris Corporation

Published Date

ISBN 10

1462816584

ISBN 13

9781462816583

Barksdale's Charge

The True High Tide of the Confederacy at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

By: Phillip Thomas Tucker

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Barksdale's Charge

The True High Tide of the Confederacy at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

By: Phillip Thomas Tucker

There is “never a dull moment” in this “excellent account” of an overlooked Confederate triumph during the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg (San Francisco Book Review). While many Civil War buffs celebrate Picket’s Charge as the climactic moment of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate Army’s true high point had come the afternoon before. When Longstreet’s corps triumphantly entered the battle, the Federals just barely held on. The foremost Rebel spearhead on that second day of the battle was Brig. Gen. William Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade, which launched what one Union observer called the “grandest charge that was ever seen by mortal man.” On the second day of Gettysburg, the Federal left was not as vulnerable as Lee had envisioned, but had cooperated with Rebel wishes by extending its Third Corps into a salient. When Longstreet finally gave Barksdale the go-ahead, the Mississippians utterly crushed the peach orchard salient and continued marauding up to Cemetery Ridge. Hancock, Meade, and other Union generals had to gather men from four different corps to try to stem the onslaught. Barksdale himself was killed at the apex of his advance. Darkness, as well as Confederate exhaustion, finally ended the day’s fight as the shaken, depleted Federal units took stock. They had barely held on against the full ferocity of the Rebels on a day that would decide the fate of the nation.

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475

Publisher

Casemate

Published Date

ISBN 10

1612001807

ISBN 13

9781612001807

Curmudgeons, Drunkards, and Outright Fools

Courts-Martial of Civil War Union Colonels

By: Thomas P. Lowry

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Curmudgeons, Drunkards, and Outright Fools

Courts-Martial of Civil War Union Colonels

By: Thomas P. Lowry

During the Civil War, a Union colonel was five times more likely to be court-martialed than a private. Worse, courts-martial of all ranks increased by 400 percent in the winter months. Among the court-martialed transgressors presented in this volume are an officer nicknamed ?Stumpy? because he tended to hide behind tree stumps during combat and a man tried for calling his superior a ?miserable reptile.? The gallery of offenders also includes a Vermont colonel who became a chloroform addict and a New York colonel who rode his horse into a barroom, ordered a brandy for himself and one for his horse, then fired his pistol through the ceiling. The stories of fifty misdeeds, along with a statistical exploration of twenty-two thousand other courts-martial, provide a pioneering study of the little-known world of Civil War misbehavior and clarify the often-bewildering dynamics between volunteer soldiers and their professional superiors.

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276

Publisher

U of Nebraska Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0803280246

ISBN 13

9780803280243

The Attack on Taranto

Blueprint for Pearl Harbor

By: Thomas P. Lowry,John Wellham

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The Attack on Taranto

Blueprint for Pearl Harbor

By: Thomas P. Lowry,John Wellham

On November 11, 1940, 21 slow, canvas-covered British warplanes, launched from the carrier Illustrious, attacked the harbor at the Italian port of Taranto and put most of the Italian navy out of commission. This all-but-forgotten operation, the authors argue, deserves historical recognition as an inspirational precedent for the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor 13 months later. Taranto demonstrated that battleships in a shallow, heavily defended harbor could be sunk by a handful of torpedo-bombers. That lesson Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese fleet, learned well-while the American military virtually ignored it. "By this single stroke the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean was decisively altered." -Winston S. Churchill

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Stackpole Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811726614

ISBN 13

9780811726610

Tarnished Scalpels

The Court-martials of Fifty Union Surgeons

By: Thomas Power Lowry,Jack D. Welsh

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Tarnished Scalpels

The Court-martials of Fifty Union Surgeons

By: Thomas Power Lowry,Jack D. Welsh

The Civil War surgeon faced a unique challenge: to answer to two very different authorities. On one hand, he was bound to uphold the principles of medical tradition, while on the other required to obey the regulations of the army. In the former realm, it was his duty to follow the customs and ethics of his profession and his responsibility to maximize his skills in the diagnosis and treatment of wounds and sickness. In the latter arena--a world unfamiliar to most doctors--he was to learn and follow the Articles of War, the Regulations of the Army, and the customs of military life. Not every doctor was able to rise to the challenge of these dual responsibilities and many Civil War surgeons ended up facing official sanctions for their alleged medical and/or procedural failures. it is all too easy today to look back on the medical practices of the Civil War era with the smug superiority of 135 years of hindsight. Modern medical knowledge and technology make the practices of late-nineteenth-century medicine seem downright primitive. But Civil War doctors and surgeons were no less knowledgeable than their civilian colleagues. The Civil War doctor did not think of bacteria because no one thought of bacteria. He did not strive for a sterile operating field because that concept would not arrive for another twenty years. For the same reasons, he did not x-ray his patients or order transfusions or examine their blood for parasites of prescribe antibiotics. We know of these things, but no one in 1861-1965 did. When Civil War surgeons arrived to perform their duty, they met a challenge for which medical training could not have prepared them: doing things the army way. The two main sources of information for enlisted men, The Articles of War and the Regulations of the Army, offered little or no guidance to Civil War surgeons. The customs of the army depended on an oral tradition, a learning by experience, but a vast citizen army raised almost overnight had no collective memory--and therefore no way to inform itself. This ignorance was the basis of several court-martials. Undoubtedly, some of these surgeons were guilty of negligence, perhaps even worse. But the great majority of Civil War surgeons did their duty. Even those who fell short raise the question: Could we, with the same challenges and the same limited knowledge, have done better? -- Inside jacket flaps.

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296

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Stackpole Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811716031

ISBN 13

9780811716031

Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

By: Thomas Power Lowry

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Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

By: Thomas Power Lowry

One of the greatest challenges faced by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis on their 1804?6 Corps of Discovery expedition was that of medical emergencies on the trail. Without an attending physician, even routine ailments and injuries could have tragic consequences for the expedition?s success and the safety of its members. Of these dangers, the most insidious and potentially devastating was the slow, painful, and oftentimes fatal ravage of venereal disease. ø Physician Thomas P. Lowry delves into the world of nineteenth-century medicine, uncovering the expedition?s very real fear of venereal disease. Lewis and Clark knew they were unlikely to prevent their men from forming sexual liaisons on the trail, so they prepared for the consequences of encounters with potentially infected people, as well as the consequences of preexisting disease, by stocking themselves with medicine and the latest scientific knowledge from the best minds in America. Lewis and Clark?s expedition encountered Native peoples who experienced venereal disease as a result of liaisons with French, British, Spanish, and Canadian travelers and had their own methods for curing its victims, or at least for easing the pain it inflicted. ø Lowry?s careful study of the explorers? journals sheds new light on this neglected aspect of the expedition, showing in detail how sex and venereal disease affected the men and their mission, and describes how diverse peoples faced a common threat with the best knowledge and tools at their disposal.

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138

Publisher

U of Nebraska Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0803229593

ISBN 13

9780803229594

Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

By: Thomas Power Lowry

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Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

By: Thomas Power Lowry

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138

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U of Nebraska Press

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ISBN 10

0803229593

ISBN 13

9780803229594

Handbook of Stress and the Brain Part 1: The Neurobiology of Stress

By: Thomas Steckler,N.H. Kalin,J.M.H.M. Reul

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Handbook of Stress and the Brain Part 1: The Neurobiology of Stress

By: Thomas Steckler,N.H. Kalin,J.M.H.M. Reul

The Handbook of Stress and the Brain focuses on the impact of stressful events on the functioning of the central nervous system; how stress affects molecular and cellular processes in the brain, and in turn, how these brain processes determine our perception of and reactivity to, stressful challenges - acutely and in the long-run. Written for a broad scientific audience, the Handbook comprehensively reviews key principles and facts to provide a clear overview of the interdisciplinary field of stress. The work aims to bring together the disciplines of neurobiology, physiology, immunology, psychology and psychiatry, to provide a reference source for both the non-clinical and clinical expert, as well as serving as an introductory text for novices in this field of scientific inquiry.Part 1 addresses basic aspects of the neurobiology of the stress response including the involvement of neuropeptide, neuroendocrine and neurotransmitter systems and its corollaries regarding gene expression and behavioural processes such as cognition, motivation and emotionality.* Provides an overview of recent advances made in stress research* Includes timely discussion of stress and its effect on the immune system* Presents novel treatment strategies targeting brain processes involved in stress processing and coping mechanisms

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857

Publisher

Elsevier

Published Date

ISBN 10

0080553249

ISBN 13

9780080553245

Tarnished Eagles

The Courts-martial of Fifty Union Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels

By: Thomas Power Lowry

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Tarnished Eagles

The Courts-martial of Fifty Union Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels

By: Thomas Power Lowry

Tells the stories of 50 Union colonels court-martialed for offenses such as drunkenness, insulting superiors, hiding during battles, and chloroform addiction. These stories, along with statistical exploration of 22,000 other courts-martial, provide a pioneering and amusing study of Civil War misbehavior and clarify the dynamics between soldiers and their superiors. Includes bandw illustrations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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280

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Stackpole Books

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ISBN 10

0811715973

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9780811715973

Great Books for Every Book Lover

2002 Great Reading Suggestions for the Discriminating Bibliophile

By: Thomas J. Craughwell

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Great Books for Every Book Lover

2002 Great Reading Suggestions for the Discriminating Bibliophile

By: Thomas J. Craughwell

Can't decide what to read? Imagine a list of the greatest books described in concise, insightful and witty profiles to browse in search of the next perfect read. 2002 Great Books for Every Book Lover offers all this and more, reviewing each book with the wit and wisdom of a seasoned book critic in this unique and useful reference that belongs in every bibliophile's library. * Readers will love the broad selection of titles, learning about famous authors and finding or recommending the next perfect read for themselves, friends and family--every type of book is covered. * Each of the 2002 book profiles, roughly one paragraph long, gives a short summary, historical context, information about the author, why the book was important and other recommended reads by the same author. * Indexes make it easy to find books by subject, title or author. A tear-off list gives readers a handy in-store reference and a check-off list helps track all the books they've read.

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Page Count

788

Publisher

Black Dog & Leventhal

Published Date

ISBN 10

157912044X

ISBN 13

9781579120443

Book's by Thomas P. Lowry

Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War

Sexual Misbehavior in the Civil War

Barksdale's Charge

Barksdale's Charge

Curmudgeons, Drunkards, and Outright Fools

Curmudgeons, Drunkards, and Outright Fools

The Attack on Taranto

The Attack on Taranto

Tarnished Scalpels

Tarnished Scalpels

Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Handbook of Stress and the Brain Part 1: The Neurobiology of Stress

Handbook of Stress and the Brain Part 1: The Neurobiology of Stress

Tarnished Eagles

Tarnished Eagles

Great Books for Every Book Lover

Great Books for Every Book Lover

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