Hooker’s Girls, and the Idahoe
Sex in the Civil War

Really…?
• Most of this information is drawn from a well written and researched monograph titled
– “The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell –
Sex in the Civil War”
– Author – Thomas P. Lowry, M.D.

Sex was common…
• Sex was common in the 19h
Century.
–Families had larger numbers of children than they do now, which by way of reason tells you that sex was common.

But, how gross…?

Average Age?
• The average Civil War soldier was 18-29 years old.
Prime of Life, not some old man…
• Sex, either the act alone, or thinking/ writing/ drawing about it occupied the time of soldiers when they weren’t fighting.

Proof?
• Letters and diaries home that include information about sex are rare.
– Why?
–Probably were not rare then.
–Edited by descendants who were embarrassed.
–“Lost”…

Code?
• Soldiers also wrote using euphemisms or doublespeak that concealed the meaning of their real message.

Butter?
• Sam Watkins, “Company Aytch” , 1 st
Tennessee (C.S.)
• Chapter 8 (Please Pass the Butter)
3:20:00 in Book 1 of 5

“The Oldest Profession”
• Prostitution is often called the
Oldest Profession
• “camp followers” have been with armies since Biblical times.
• Main physical outlet for soldiers to have sexual relations was through visiting a prostitute.

Common Myth…
• You’ve heard the term
“Hooker”…
• Meet Union General Joseph
Hooker…
• “Hooker’s Divisions” was a term applied to the women who followed his military camps.

Prostitutes
Average age of a prostitute was 23 years old.
Records exist of prostitutes being as young as 14-15 years old.

Where?
• Prostitutes didn’t often follow armies around while they were fighting.
• Large cities had many.
– Washington D.C.
– Nashville TN
– Memphis TN

When?
• While soldiers were on “leave”
• or “Detached
Duty”
• or stationed in the city
• or AWOL

How Much
(often)
?
• One record shows one soldier owed a
“girl of the night”
$40.00 for
“services rendered”
• He earned $13 per month for being a soldier.

The Problem?
• Venereal Disease
.
• Gonorrhea and Syphilis were the main diseases.
• 73,368 Union Soldiers were diagnosed with syphilis.

Secondary Syphilis
• Union Soldier with symptoms of Stage Two syphilis.
• That is not a beard.

Another Unhappy VD Victim

The Cure?
• No “cure” until 1908
• “French Envelopes” – Condoms
– Rare
• Army tried to control prostitutes
–Two different methods

Controlling Prostitution – The East
• Washington D.C.
• Rows and rows of brothels appeared across the street from the unfinished Capitol building.
• Prostitutes were everywhere.
• So were soldiers.

The Unfinished Capitol Dome

Call the Provost!
• Military Police (The Provost) would capture “Hooker’s Girls” and put them in jail.
• They would buy their way out of jail (Pay Bail)
• Be “back in business” later the same day.

Controlling Prostitution – The West
• Nashville, TN.
• When the Union occupied Nashville, they followed the D.C. plan for controlling the Oldest Profession.
• Then they tried shipping the girls out of town.
• This did not work!

A New Plan…Legalize it!
• Nashville and Memphis TN
• Union Medical Authorities set up a system of Medical Regulation of prostitution which required that a prostitute get a medical examination every 14 days.

A License…for WHAT?
• If they passed inspection, they were given a
Certificate of health which allowed them to be
“open for business”.

But, What if they Failed?
• They were sent to the Hospital set up to deal with venereal disease,
• Hospital Number 11 was the Women’s
Venereal Disease Hospital.

Hospital Number Eleven

The Results?
• Reduced the number of disease cases for both prostitutes and soldiers
• Allowed the “trade in flesh” to continue.
• Nashville, followed by Memphis, was
America’s first attempt at legalized prostitution.

Nevada, you say?
• The second attempt, and only current attempt, is the legalized trade in Nevada.
• Currently in the legalized prostitution in Nevada, NOT ONE
SINGLE case of AIDS has been found.

Homosexuality?
• The term “homosexual” appeared in 1895
• The term “gay” began to mean
“homosexual” around 1950.
• Few terms then meant what we mean by “homosexual”

Numbers…math.
• Modern Doctors say the rate of homosexuality is between 1 and 10 percent.
– between 1 and 10 people in every 100 are attracted to the same sex.
– with 1 percent as a number, it seems that
25,000 soldiers on the Union side could have been attracted to men.

Image –John Billings – Titled
“Spooning”
Conclusions?

“In the Navy…”
• Homosexuality was not allowed in the military then (or now)
• 3 pairs of Union Sailors were tried by courts martial for intercourse with the other, and sentenced to prison.
• There’s more…

Racism, even in this…
• The military forms for this crime
(homosexuality) state that white men charged with the crime shall be held for examination.
• Blacks charged with the crime shall be held for trial.

Conclusion of this PowerPoint…
• Soldiers in the 1860s were human, and experienced life as all other humans do.
• Do not forget that the people who fought this conflict felt the same pain as you, the same sorrow, the same fear, and, apparently, the same “urges”…
• That in mind, soldier life can be understood a bit better.