== Comments/questions comparing the articles ==

== Comments/questions comparing the articles ==

 

== Alice Fahs, “The Feminized Civil War: Gender, Northern Popular Literature, and the Memory of War, 1861-1900” ==

== Alice Fahs, “The Feminized Civil War: Gender, Northern Popular Literature, and the Memory of War, 1861-1900” ==

I agree with CBrau I myself was very suprised at the lack of literature we typically see for Northern women throughout the Civil War. '''I have only paid attention to literature from Southern women, due to the amount of fighting in the South and how their lives were completely destroyed, but women's lives in the North were strongly affected as well. The literature and quotes from Northern mothers hit home to me as I have watched my mom proudly tell family members and friends that her son will serve the United States.''' As stated by New York Times, a mother after shopping with her son for his military equipment said, " This, my son, is all that I can do. I have given you up to serve your country, and may God go with you! It is all a mother can do." I know this was stated by a Northern woman but I wondered if mothers felt this way all over the country and this unified them in their efforts to support not only the "woman's" war but the Civil War as well? ie. through sending supplies, flying flags in faces of opposing generals, etc. -Megan W.

I agree with CBrau I myself was very suprised at the lack of literature we typically see for Northern women throughout the Civil War. '''I have only paid attention to literature from Southern women, due to the amount of fighting in the South and how their lives were completely destroyed, but women's lives in the North were strongly affected as well. The literature and quotes from Northern mothers hit home to me as I have watched my mom proudly tell family members and friends that her son will serve the United States.''' As stated by New York Times, a mother after shopping with her son for his military equipment said, " This, my son, is all that I can do. I have given you up to serve your country, and may God go with you! It is all a mother can do." I know this was stated by a Northern woman but I wondered if mothers felt this way all over the country and this unified them in their efforts to support not only the "woman's" war but the Civil War as well? ie. through sending supplies, flying flags in faces of opposing generals, etc. -Megan W.

I find it super interesting how quickly the important contributions of women were forgotten. During the actual war it was fine for the media to have such a high percentage of feminized literature because the contributions that women were making were right there in front of them and not easily ignored. This might have also been because women probably dominated the audience, since they were the ones at home and able to get a magazine or paper. It seems that as the years passed after the end of the war, the emotions of the war were forgotten and men wanted to read about their battles and their leaders as opposed to the private and emotional battles that women fought, even if they were just as difficult and important. Fahs talks about how idealized southern white women's literature was more popular, and this was probably because people did not want to face the reality of what really happened in the war. -- Angie

'''I find it super interesting how quickly the important contributions of women were forgotten.''' During the actual war it was fine for the media to have such a high percentage of feminized literature because the contributions that women were making were right there in front of them and not easily ignored. This might have also been because women probably dominated the audience, since they were the ones at home and able to get a magazine or paper. It seems that as the years passed after the end of the war, the emotions of the war were forgotten and men wanted to read about their battles and their leaders as opposed to the private and emotional battles that women fought, even if they were just as difficult and important. Fahs talks about how idealized southern white women's literature was more popular, and this was probably because people did not want to face the reality of what really happened in the war. -- Angie

I found this article very interesting, seeing as how I wasn't aware of how literature about the Civil War evolved.  As someone else mentioned, it does make sense that during the war much of the literature produced was on and aimed at women, a main reason probably due to the fact that men were just not a viable market - they were off fighting.  After the war, women, as often happens, are pushed to the back burner to focus on the "real" wartime victims - those in battle. This essay reemphasizes the idea that wartime memories change with the time period. Each study into a past war is dictated by what that generation is going through. - Christine L

I found this article very interesting, seeing as how I wasn't aware of how literature about the Civil War evolved.  As someone else mentioned, it does make sense that during the war much of the literature produced was on and aimed at women, a main reason probably due to the fact that men were just not a viable market - they were off fighting.  After the war, women, as often happens, are pushed to the back burner to focus on the "real" wartime victims - those in battle. This essay reemphasizes the idea that wartime memories change with the time period. Each study into a past war is dictated by what that generation is going through. - Christine L

'''The author posits that women's suffering was equal to or greater than that of men fighting in the war.  Although women suffered great emotional trauma with the loss of their spouses or children, I don't think that you can compare this emotional suffering to what the men were exposed to in battle.  They all suffered in their individual way, but the emotional and physical toll the men faced daily cannot be compared to that of women's suffering back home.'''-efritz

'''The author posits that women's suffering was equal to or greater than that of men fighting in the war.  Although women suffered great emotional trauma with the loss of their spouses or children, I don't think that you can compare this emotional suffering to what the men were exposed to in battle.  They all suffered in their individual way, but the emotional and physical toll the men faced daily cannot be compared to that of women's suffering back home.'''-efritz

While reading I found it interesting that women’s literature disappeared and “a newly masculinized literary marketplace” took place AFTER the Civil War. The literature in stories, essays, novels, poems, songs, newspapers, and magazines switched from primarily focused on the personalities, suffering, and trials of women to focus on the “real” or “actual” experience of the people during the War; that which men had during the battles, who the people where, (specifically generals), and the deaths /problems during the war. In addition to this we must remember who the media of the period are appealing to; the women during the Civil War were the only ones left at home to receive and read these magazines, so they would appeal to them first and foremost and then to the men once they came back from war. When the men came back from war, they came back into their dominating role of society. In response to this fact, the media began to print articles about what they thought would be appealing to the men that came home, “The Century magazine, begun in 1881, published its famous battles and Leaders of the Civil War series from November 1884 until November 1887.” These were stories of their battles and the trials they, the men, had faced. I don’t think that when the men came home they wanted to hear about how much the women in their lives had suffered, but what they had suffered to bring freedom to their country and the women in it; the feel heroic and that they had survived.  

While reading I found it interesting that women’s literature disappeared and “a newly masculinized literary marketplace” took place AFTER the Civil War. The literature in stories, essays, novels, poems, songs, newspapers, and magazines switched from primarily focused on the personalities, suffering, and trials of women to focus on the “real” or “actual” experience of the people during the War; that which men had during the battles, who the people where, (specifically generals), and the deaths /problems during the war. In addition to this we must remember who the media of the period are appealing to; the women during the Civil War were the only ones left at home to receive and read these magazines, so they would appeal to them first and foremost and then to the men once they came back from war. When the men came back from war, they came back into their dominating role of society. In response to this fact, the media began to print articles about what they thought would be appealing to the men that came home, “The Century magazine, begun in 1881, published its famous battles and Leaders of the Civil War series from November 1884 until November 1887.” These were stories of their battles and the trials they, the men, had faced. I don’t think that when the men came home they wanted to hear about how much the women in their lives had suffered, but what they had suffered to bring freedom to their country and the women in it; the feel heroic and that they had survived. -- (Morgan)

I also found the argument between the portrait of women encouraging the men to enlist and the effect of suffering because of sacrificing their men. Samuel Osgood explains his figure of women as “the good mother seated at the window from which floats the household flag, and watching intently the passing regiment and waving her handkerchief to some friend of kinsman…the nation seems to live in the person of this queen.” These women, especially mothers, appropriate roles are to sacrifice their sons and husbands for the good of the nation and, in this depiction, revel in their position in the military. “The patriotic mother and her daughter became a way of imagining personal obligation to the state.” In contrast, the picture of women suffering for their men is a truer reality than that of being happy during the war. Louise Chandler Moulton’s 1863 “One of Many” wrote “Is it not true that every bullet shoots double, and the shot which flies farthest makes the sorest wound?” In this sense a women is “wounded for far longer and far worse that the pain that the solider felt as he died and left her. I feel that Fanny Fern summed it up best in writing that she “who is giving her husband to her country, has given everything.” ---Morgan

I also found the argument between the portrait of women encouraging the men to enlist and the effect of suffering because of sacrificing their men. Samuel Osgood explains his figure of women as “the good mother seated at the window from which floats the household flag, and watching intently the passing regiment and waving her handkerchief to some friend of kinsman…the nation seems to live in the person of this queen.” These women, especially mothers, appropriate roles are to sacrifice their sons and husbands for the good of the nation and, in this depiction, revel in their position in the military. “The patriotic mother and her daughter became a way of imagining personal obligation to the state.” In contrast, the picture of women suffering for their men is a truer reality than that of being happy during the war. Louise Chandler Moulton’s 1863 “One of Many” wrote “Is it not true that every bullet shoots double, and the shot which flies farthest makes the sorest wound?” In this sense a women is “wounded for far longer and far worse that the pain that the solider felt as he died and left her. I feel that '''Fanny Fern summed it up best in writing that she “who is giving her husband to her country, has given everything.”''' ---Morgan